We did not live silent

Image: Steel wool fireworks celebrating Ramadan in Gaza,, 2025 (source: Mohamed Al Khalidi, @m7md_vo)

Heartbreakingly beautiful words from a video by @pa_allies, expressing Palestinian voices in Gaza. It reads as a poem and the cadence of the opening lines reminded me of Dylan Thomas’s poem, Do not go gentle into that good night:

Tell them

We did not live silent

We lit up the sky

We laughed

We took care of each other

Tell them

We were broken

But we did not live silent

We reached for the impossible

And it was impossible

If I die

Tell them

We did not live silent

We sang

We taught

We learned

We grew

We messed with each other

We danced

And we danced

We made it work

We prayed for each other

We cried

We held each other

But tell them

We did not live silent

We resisted

And resisted

And resisted

And resisted

We bled

We stitched each other up

We leaned on each other

We fed each other

Tell them

We did not live silent

We told stories at night

We rode at dawn

We ran for our lives

We swam for our lives

We risked it all

We never gave up

Until the last breath

Tell them

We did not live silent

And we died

Free