Ahed Tamini

Hopelessness spreads
Across many devides
When young hopes are dashed
By the defeating tides
Despairing glances
Fearing the worst
With parents suffering
And when the first
Inconsolable nightmare
Happens to fall
Down on your village
Loved by you all

Nabi Saleh near Ramallah
West Bank
Where 600 or so souls
Really cant thank
Israel for all of its incursions
There
Causing such stress
And Woeful despair

Waking up households
And photographing children
Making them suffer
And frightened they be
Its so unpropitious
And hardly auspicious
To live with dashed hopes
And the freedom to see

All the time it feels ominous
Children must grow up
Watching their parents
Suffering so
Losing heart giving way to despair
Every moment
Discouraged and saddened
With such fear that does grow

Everyone has misgivings
Mistrust and uneasiness
Intimidation is so everywhere
This sabre rattling
This reign of terror
Such trepidation
Its really unfair

One sixteen year old
Ahed Tamini
Her golden ringlets
Her pale blue eyes
Born into a family
With natural resistence
To Israeli war games
Whose audacity

Draws fearless courage
Out of her young body
She stands up to the soldiers
Who now occupy
Her pluck and her spunk
Invites retaliation
But she is at one with herself
And does try

With some resolutness
To combat their squalor
Heavily armed and brainwashed to be
Stuck in the west bank
Inside her village
Showing great courage
And such chivalry

The Israeli Minister of education
Says lock her up
And throw away the key
On a sixteen year old girl
Who will not be beaten
Who may be seen as reckless
With daredevilry

Hope springs eternal
In youth theres conviction
That glimmer grows bigger
And clearly this lass
Has faith and looks foward
To a time when her freedom
Will be afforded her
And her family en masse

The town took to the streets
Two years ago 350 of them quite a show
But many were beaten up and badly hurt
Rubber bullets were used
Faces pressed in the dirt
And still with this memory
She took them on
She did Slap the soldier
And try and pervert

Her form of justice
It was her way
Of breaking the monotony
Of a hot day
Of making a stand
For her parents whom she
Could feel their remorse
And their antipathy

Being held in contempt
And despised all the time
For something you havent done
Its such a climb
Into a sanity into a place
Where respect is forthcoming
And you keep your face

Having no standing
In Israels black books
No reputation
Reproached for ones looks
It is demeaning to have no repute
Each time you go out
Being threatened they will shoot

Full marks to this girl
Who takes on the role
Of attempting to fight back
To take some control
Now she is locked up in
A dank prison cell
And we must understand
They are making it hell

But she has the distinction
Of being herself
On a much higher register
Than those who try
With their guns and their arrogance
To put her down
And threaten no doubt
That yes she will die

But they elevate her
For their evil intent
For their self conceit
And their rigourous bent
In tormenting a people
And being unfair
By building more settlements
And still unaware
Of the fact its not their land
To do as they do
But the land of Palestine people
indeed true

Its all gone quiet
But lets guess that she be
Treated with anything than dignity
They wish their souls could be equal
To hers
Their self assertion
And when it occurs
Lost in the remnants
Of bitter desire
For insolent thoughts
Really burned in her fire

They remain shameless
And imperious louts
Whatever happens
They are in no doubts
She is the angel in so many ways
Who took on the army
And received the worlds praise