Maryam

You are admirable
in your ability to
adjust to an unplanned pregnancy,
face the ridicule of the deadly self-righteous,
stand with your people oppressed by political occupation,
travel eighty miles by donkey well into your third trimester,
accept unwelcome and give birth among animals and their waste,
flee four hundred miles with a newborn child to claim refugee status.

I like to imagine
that when you returned home,
you rejoiced with song and laughter
and that you taught your child
how to dance.