The Palestinian Boy in Plainfield, Illinois by Rebecca Leet The skin I notice first and the eye of my heart keeps returning there milk chocolate and velvety like a Hershey bar melted in the summer sun with softness specific to those who have not lived long enough to sow seeds of hate a six-year-old’s skin that will never know acne or manly stubble a lover’s lips or the caress of his own baby’s cheek. Did the wizened man who screamed Muslims must die see the innocence as he stabbed him 26 times? As he erased the sweet life and some of the hope I carry for the world. Copyright 2023 by Rebecca Leeet
Rebecca Leet began her career as a newspaper reporter in Washington, DC and learned there that large numbers can numb a person to the human impact of news, while the story of a single person can pierce the numbness and bring home the horror. She has been published in more than 20 journals and sites and her book Living With The Doors Wide Open (Mercury HeartLink) came out in 2018
