The Prayer of Khaled Joudeh, Age 9

Upon returning to school after the start of the New Year, I assigned my 10th grade students a reflection project in which they had to choose an image from the New York Times "Year in Pictures - 2023" and write a short poem that conveys the emotions and elements of the photo. I usually complete the assignments alongside my students, especially I am asking them to be vulnerable in their work. So, I began scrolling through the photos posted on the NYT website. When I got to the month of October, the intensity of the images increased exponentially as the majority of the photos were of the brutality of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. One image in particular cut my heart the deepest: A young boy in the Gaza Strip reaching to touch the cold forehead of his 8-month old baby sister as she lay wrapped in a blood-stained shroud. Samar Abu Elouf, an award-winning photojournalist for the New York Times, had taken the photo. She also had spoken to the boy and found out that his baby sister had been killed during an Israeli airstrike that had obliterated the building in which her family was sheltering. In addition to the loss of his sister, the boy's mother, father, and older brother also perished in the attack. As I gazed at the tragic scene, I heard the prayer of the young boy, now an orphan. A prayer and a lullaby wrapped in the salt of his grief.

Sleep, Baby Sister,

and weep no more for violent men,

gluttonous grave diggers

wielding guns like shovels

to bury the living in rubbled tombs -

Maalik shall reap them for Jahannam's fires.

Sleep, Baby Sister,

for your grave is well-guarded;

Father, Mother, Sister, Brother

Now monuments of memory,

but I have been left behind

to water your grave lilies with salt tears.

Sleep, Baby Sister,

cold cherub in your heaven-bound cradle -

I shall stay behind for now,

makeshift Imam to recite your Ṣalāt al-Janāzah:

"Ya allah adkhuluha aljana*"

O God, let her enter into Paradise.

Sleep, Baby Sister;

Sleep.

*I attempted to translate as best I could. I am not an Arabic speaker, but I wanted to include these words to honor the faith of those who have recited the funeral prayer for family and friends killed in the conflict.

Link to the article featuring the image of Khaled: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/18/world/middleeast/gaza-children-israel.html