In the supermarket,
I heard someone beside me say,
“The war will end soon.”
He held his phone—
wedged between shoulder and ear—
while placing his chosen items into a basket.
He smiled.
I asked him,
“Will the war really end soon, as you believe?”
He left me there,
laughing like a madman.
When I asked the shopkeeper why,
he told me:
He comes here every day.
Buys the same biscuits—
his late daughter’s favorite—
and tells her the war will end.
He believes it will end.
He believes
she will come back.
This poem is from “Voices from Gaza:Poetry” written by Dr. Hassan Al-Qatraawi .
The poem is written in an absurdist way – how the father buys biscuits that were his late daughter’s favorite, telling her that the war will end. The tone sets up in such a way that the absurd tone is heartbreaking. The poem itself is aware, when asked to clarify if he really believed that the war will end, he laughs, as the poem notes “like a madman”. In the final verse, the poem ends with another impossible feat, getting his daughter back from the dead.
