Goodbye, O mourning one
I am to fly home and leave
you here with your thoughts and
sorrows.
I will be sure to kiss the skies,
nest on the olive trees
and feast from our land.
Goodbye, O free one,
greet my loved ones
who now call the earth home,
and kiss their dirt.
Visit them with water and seeds
so, they will grow into the trees
that nurture the children of our land.
Maye Al-Selwady is a Palestinian-American Ph.D. candidate of English literature at Louisiana State University. Al-Selwady’s areas of interests include the intersection of postcolonial theory, women studies, and critical race studies. In her work, Al-selwady explores themes of identity, displacement, and longing.
