Blue

I'm Dina Shehada, an 18 year old poet from Gaza. Writing is how I process the heaviness of loss, displacement, and survival. Through poetry, I give voice to emotions that ordinary words can’t hold. Much of my work is rooted in personal experience and shaped by the resilience I’ve had to build through difficult times. I write to remember, to resist, and to stay connected to my inner self when the world around me feels unrecognizable.

I want to feel something new

Something inside me up and flew

Left me empty, lost 

Like an untitled clue

I knew from the beginning 

That this would be a blow 

But what could I do

Even if I knew 

Blue

A feeling sticks to me like glue

Drowns me deep in shade

Presses with all its weight 

And all I try to do

Is make it through the fade

Blue

Too heavy to be true

Only endless woe,

With silence

That feels too loud, too.

Blue

Searching through songs,

Through broken lines

Seeking some signs

Anything that can describe

Yet, no one's lived these times

Or heard such muted cries 

Blue

How could they know?

A sadness I can't explain 

An unbreakable chain

That pulls me down

Again and again

Blue

An unchangeable view

It hurts you

To get used

To feel this way

You can't resist

The way you once did

Day by day,

Acting alive
Is all you do and say

Waiting for it to fade away

Blue

Same scene, same pain

Same scream, once more, again 

And all you long for

Is breaking the chain

Escaping the fading hue

To feel, to breathe, to start anew

Yet

Still all you get

Is the Blue.