The Only Survivor by Ahmed Miqdad (Palestine)

Ahmed Miqdad is a Palestinian poet, teacher and activist in  Gaza, Palestine. He was born on December 15, 1985, in Gaza city. He has a B.A. in English and a Master in Education. His literary journey began in 2014. Ahmed is the author of four collections of poetry (Gaza Narrates Poetry (2014), Stolen Lives (2015) and When Hope Is not Enough (2019) and a novel Falastin: The Hope of Tomorrow (2018). The latest poetry collection is The Shadow: Poems for the children of Gaza (2024). His poems has been featured in different anthologies like THE UNSILENCED 2025.  He's an awardee of Naji Namaan Literary Prizes 2025 in creativity and as the second prize in Il Meleto Di Guido Gozzano 2025 Literary Competition . He has witnessed over four wars and severe aggressions by Israeli forces on the Palestinian people since the 1980s with a huge loss of life. He writes and publishes to raise consciousness about the Palestinian fair cause.



The Only Survivor
Ahmed Miqdad

In the blink of an eye,
A sudden flash appeared,
Then darkness swallowed everything around me.
Debris rained down upon us,
The choking dust filled my lungs,
And silence crept in like a ghost,
Broken only by faint voices
Barely able to utter words.
We were trapped beneath the rubble,
Unable to move,
Unable to escape.
My sun had set,
And my moon's voice drifted from afar,
Whispering broken farewells.
My stars could not withstand
The merciless rockets
And the razor-sharp shrapnel.
They were scattered into countless pieces.
I screamed with all my strength,
But my universe could neither hear
Nor answer
It had become deaf and mute.
Then, from somewhere in the distance,
A rescuer's voice echoed:
"Is anyone still alive?"
I wished I had gone with them,
Closing the sorrowful chapter of my life forever.
But destiny decreed
That I should remain alone.
Who will make my sun rise again?
Who will bring my moon back to my sky?
Who will let my star-like siblings
Dance around me like butterflies once more?
I am the only survivor,
Wandering through this dark and unjust universe,
Stumbling onward
Without my family.