Madonna and Child - Gaza 2025
In response to a photo taken by Saher Alghorra published in the New York Times
Imagine
She stands before a crumbling wall; the adobe peeling and cracked, the cracks alluding to the world crumbling around her. In her arms, a child of indeterminate age. Dark curls crown his head as he snuggles into the woman’s shoulder. His bare back so taut it reveals the knots of his backbone, his ribs. This skeleton of bones now the prominant feature of his emaciated body. Below his arm there’s a hint of a stomach distended from starvation. At the end of that arm, a tiny hand rests over his mother’s heart.
The woman nuzzles her cheek against his. Her eyes are shuttered, her face grim and stoic. Her face encircled by a deep purple hijab, the color flowing to her abaya, a purple that, in some cultures, denotes mourning. Holding her child against her, the woman’s hands are clasped, as if in prayer, as if in supplication. Unseen, her heart beats with a steadiness that belies her fears, thump thumping beneath the child’s tiny trusting hand.
Submitted by P. Abrahamsen