I said to myself, we will rebuild it, but then I fell asleep!
In a dream-like scene, I saw a city surrounded by walls,
Guarded by watching towers from all sides,
The entire city was a pile of rubble and remnants of homes,
Dogs had turned into beasts,
Rats had become ferocious, gnawing on corpses like wolves,
Women were bareheaded,
Their scalps shaved,
Their skin and faces dark, burnt from the sun,
Their hands were rough and their nails like claws,
They moved briskly like a cat,
Hunting whatever they could with spears in their hands,
Men, with amputated limbs everywhere,
Children were corpses,
And those who survived became thieves,
They were called the pickers (al-nashaboon).
Families were fragmented,
New groups were formed based on survival techniques
The black widows became a tribe,
The pickers another tribe,
The disabled a third tribe,
Most businessmen escaped the war,
But those who stayed built walls around their areas,
To protect themselves and their wealth with the help of paid “armies”,
Outside, the city is surrounded by high towers,
The “real” people, the ordinary ones, bought expensive tickets
To practice their hobby of watching,
To please the hearts of the spectators,
A guard would drop food from drones in the sky,
Then, the people would emerge from the ruins like zombies,
Competing to snatch it,
They fight over it,
Then, a guard would drop a piece of weapon from the same drone,
The noise of killing rises,
Bargaining starts,
The tension among the gamblers increases,
They agree on more competitions,
More betting,
It would all be broadcast on MBC,
And streamed exclusively, without ads, on Shahid App.
There were now more analysts ready to explain human behavior,
Much more than the ones we saw analyzing the battles.
I woke up from my nap and said:
“Maybe it’s Israel”.
I fell asleep once more,
But this time, I decided not to wake up again.
Ahmad Issa
7/4/2025
