The Memory of Lemon Juice, Gaza 2024

The Memory of Lemon Juice, Gaza 2024 The scent of leaves we placed between our clothes no moths would dare to eat but these we left behind the fruit we sliced, summer ripe  packed in salt and sealed preserved for later use among the rubble of our home my mother squeezed one each day the drink she said which gave her strength but did not save her from the blast before the bombs began no home appeared complete without its lemon tree we cannot see where ours once grew now we live in tents wait hours in line for rice and mash with our battered begging tins the only things we own today we talk and dream of food recall the taste we crave of boughs weighed down with fruit  from the tree that blessed our lives.