Write My Name On My Leg Mama
Palestinian-American Poet Laureate of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, Zeina Azzam, read a poem at the UN for the 76th commemoration of Palestine’s Nakba on May 17.
Azzam wrote the poem, titled “Write My Name,” at the end of October 2023 after learning that Palestinian parents in Gaza were writing their children’s names on their legs, so they could be identified if the parents or the children were killed by “Israel”.
Write my name on my leg Mama
Use the black permanent marker
With the ink that doesn’t bleed if it gets wet,
The one that doesn’t melt if it’s exposed to heat.
Write my name on my leg Mama
Make the lines thick and clear and add your special flourishes
So I can take comfort in seeing my mama’s handwriting
When I go to sleep.
Write my name on my leg Mama
And on the legs of my sisters and brothers
This way we will belong together
This way we will be known as your children.
Write my name on my leg mama
And please write your name and Baba’s name
On your legs too so we will be remembered
As a family.
Write my name on my leg mama
Don’t add any numbers – like when I was born
Or the address of our home
I don’t want the world to list me as a number
I have a name and I’m not a number.
Write my name on my leg mama
When the bomb hits our house
When the walls crush our skulls and bones
Our legs will tell our story
How there was nowhere for us to run…
