The Lesson

New Square
Apr 6
1 min read

Brad Davis

from a photograph by Dawoud Abu

The guitar’s warm wood resonates

with each tentative pluck and strum.

The child’s shoulders slump forward,

eyes trained on the teacher’s fingers—

the wall behind them pocked with

what looks like bullet holes. This

is Gaza City, and the two of them are

translating their sadness—the heavy

prayer of thin, disappearing bodies—

into what gunfire will never drown out.

Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters

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