The Winter That Burns

This Christmas, families in Gaza cling to hope, not for gifts, but for the simple wish that survival will bring them home all together again.

A Tale of Two Winters

In some places, homes twinkle with strings of lights,

Laughter warms gatherings —

A season of joy.

And in others, the jet’s glitter

Is the festive light.

No glow, only fire.

The cold clings to skin,

Settles deep in chests.

While others unwrap gifts,

We sift through rubble,

Piecing together

What’s left of life.

Families crouch

Around tiny fires,

Homes erased.

Fathers wrap children

In threadbare blankets,

Shielding them from the biting wind.

***

The Sky that Destroys

“Will the fire keep the sky away?”

How do you say to a child —

In Gaza, the sky doesn’t protect;

It destroys.

“Peace on Earth,” they sing,

When it only carries death.

This winter is extra brutal.

Shelters overflow,

Walls damp and cold.

Food scarce,

Clean water a dream.

Mothers rock children

To sleep,

Their cries muffled

With fear.

Doctors ration hope,

Working by flashlights,

Supplies long gone.

Some sleep

In shattered homes,

Wrapped in tattered blankets.

Others have no shelter —

Only the cold,

The hum of drones.

***

Children of the Rubble

Mariam dreams of shoes,

Not wrapped beneath a tree,

But sturdy enough

To cross the rubble safely.

“At night, my toes hurt.”

Ahmed, clutching a fading memory,

Speaks of his friends.

“They were like my brothers.”

In a darkness so absolute,

Broken only by distant explosions

Or the wail of an ambulance.

Every shadow feels heavy with threat.

Every silence warns

Of what comes next.

Every child we lose

Extinguishes a light

In this endless night.

And there are so few lights left.

***

A Mother’s Silence

A mother seated

On the floor of a crumbling building,

Tells stories

To defeat her children’s hunger.

Her youngest clinging

To a broken doll,

“Will Santa find us?”

She says nothing.

No stockings hang by fires here,

Only shivering children.

Nearby, Fatima mourns

Her baby,

Lost last week to the cold.

“I would give them my heart

If it could keep them warm.”

But even that

Has frozen.

***

A Candle in the Ruins

Children fight battles

They never chose.

Hunger gnaws at their bellies,

The cold settles deep in their bones.

They’ve lost their homes,

Their schools,

Their parents.

And still, somehow, they hold on.

I don’t know where they find the strength.

I only know

They deserve so much more.

“Goodwill to all,” the world says —

But I wonder if Gaza hears it,

Or if the laughter of the holidays

Drowns us out.

Santa do you hear the cries,

Of the children left in the cold?

Santa do you see the homes,

That once held joy?

Santa where is the hope,

For those who only wish for warmth?

Where is the peace

For those who only know fear?