Two steps: one, two.
Look in the mirror:
The horror, the horror!
The butt of your M-16 on my cheekbone
The yellow patch it left
The bullet-shaped scar expanding
Like a swastika,
Snaking across my face,
The heartache flowing
Out of my eyes dripping
Out of my nostrils piercing
My ears flooding
The place.
Like it did to you
70 years ago
Or so.
***
I am just you.
I am your past haunting
Your present and your future.
I strive like you did.
I fight like you did.
I resist like you resisted
And for a moment,
I’d take your tenacity
As a model,
Were you not holding
The barrel of the gun
Between my bleeding
Eyes.
***
One. Two.
The very same gun
The very same bullet
That had killed your Mom
And killed your Dad
Is being used,
Against me,
By you.
***
Mark this bullet and mark in your gun.
If you sniff it, it has your and my blood.
It has my present and your past.
It has my present.
It has your future.
That’s why we are twins,
Same life track
Same weapon
Same suffering
Same facial expressions drawn
On the face of the killer,
Same everything
Except that in your case
The victim has evolved, backward,
Into a victimizer.
I tell you.
I am you.
Except that I am not the you of now.
***
I do not hate you.
I want to help you stop hating
And killing me.
I tell you:
The noise of your machine gun
Renders you deaf
The smell of the powder
Beats that of my blood.
The sparks disfigure
My facial expressions.
Would you stop shooting?
For a moment?
Would you?
***
All you have to do
Is close your eyes
(Seeing these days
Blinds our hearts.)
Close your eyes, tightly
So that you can see
In your mind’s eye.
Then look into the mirror.
One. Two.
I am you.
I am your past.
And killing me,
You kill you.
In Gaza, My Gaza! 
Hello I’m a student journalist writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I might want to mention this poem in an article. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about it? If so, email me back saying yes, and I’ll want to know why you blog and write poetry. My email’s timworden@csu.fullerton.edu
Hi Tim, I do not mind you quoting the poem above or any of the texts here. write the questions here and i will do my best to answer you as soon as possible.
thanks and good luck
Salam min Indonesia
“I resist like you resisted”
The Jews did not resist that much during WWII, except in the Warsaw ghetto. And, the zionists collaborated with the nazis.
However, the Palestinians have been strongly and courageously resisting the occupation of Palestine.
i see what you mean. Thank you for your comment.
Pingback: I am You | maryamzaghloul
Pingback: Spanish translation of my poem “I Am You”, “Soy vos” | In Gaza, My Gaza!
Would be nice if it had any kind of truth in it…but that’s not the case.
The truth is the Israel is dealing with endless attacks of Palestinian terrorists , daily.
The truth is the good people of the Arab Palestinian population are stuck between the IDF and the terrorists.
I wish it was not the case but it is.
You guys should open your minds a bit, read other sources of news. Read sources which contradicts what you read on your press.
Saying Jews are murderers , Jews are rapists , IDF are Nazis etc…That’s all lies. What I’m afraid is that a lie which is told too many times becomes a “truth”. At least for people who just learn about the conflict from a far.
please watch this