On the occasion of the current catastrophe in the Middle East, we invited authors from the region to write stories, poems and essays to draw attention to a truth different from the simple news from this region.

From the screen falls a hand, an eye, a heart, 
An eye searches for its pair, 
A moment before the sky collapsed, they were looking up at it together

One hand embraces another,
They belonged to two boys who, not long ago, were playing roughly, 
The mother about to scold them, but again the sky fell 
The hand was left clinging to his friend's

The survivors try to put the pieces back together,
but some refuse to let go

In Gaza, mothers sleep with a son's heart clasped in their hands 
Brothers sleep, their hearts holding a sister's lung 
All are connected, each part keeps watch over the other

Bana Beydoun is a Lebanese poet and writer

All wars have collateral damage, says the presenter in English, smugly
While a child in Gaza carefully picks up the parts of his brother and places them in his school bag
He'll tell the doctor about his brother's laughter, his powerful thumps,
his loud, sometimes annoying voice 
No detail will be forgotten, to help the doctor recreate his brother exactly as he was

All wars have collateral damage, the presenter repeats
As a father walks past, robotlike, carrying his two children in nylon bags 
His eyes, two stones that crumble every time the city shakes

The presenter questions him: "Do you blame yourself? "
He doesn't answer. The presenter, reassured of the validity of his theory,
licks his cracked lips
and swallows what's left of skin and dried blood

The sky falls in again

The cleaner in the TV studio sweeps it up
Fragments fall from the screen,
connecting with each other 
They pile up until they form a single being,
which stretches until it reaches the fiery chasm,
where once there was a sky

In Gaza, the afterlife precedes this life
In Gaza, the world ends every day
And a crawling child picks up the pieces,
The world is just a puzzle she found, scattered between one death and another
In Gaza live those who are not visible on the map of this world,
In Gaza live those who are visible on the map of neither the living nor the dead.
They will be living long after everything has ended.
They were born after the end of the world .