On the Brink of Hunger #SiegeOfElFasher

By Hind Moaz
The place is silent—so silent it paralyzes. I strained to catch a sound, any sound— a rustle, a whisper, even the echo of a blast or a shell.

But nothing. The silence is suffocating, drowning everything in its grip.

My dear,
I believe my ears have grown too accustomed to all of this. They no longer register sound— not even the growl of an empty stomach. Even that has fallen silent.

No wind passes. The walls have forgotten how to breathe. The hands of the clock have ceased their march. Perhaps hunger has seized them, too. Or maybe a bullet pierced their heart and left them still—quiet as my own.

It’s as if the city has been holding its breath for a thousand years. The birds have fled, and with them, peace. Now fear pulses in its chest—like a lost heart, wandering through its silent ribs, seeking not shelter, but survival.

Even destruction has lost its voice. It no longer screams. Instead, it cradles every corner of this lace— not to destroy it this time, but to shield it from hunger. As though the stench of gunpowder and hattered flesh were kinder than the agony of a stomach turned against itself. But the bullets were merciless— they let them die slowly, silently.

I try to look around, but all I see is emptiness— the bones of people devoured by hunger, the skin of children who left life smiling, because the last thing they dreamed of… was a meal.

I breathe in, and the air tastes strange. As if someone died here. Or perhaps everything did. I smell he memory of something too afraid to pass through— a memory fearing it might be ravaged by the starving, or fade into oblivion, just like those who bore it.

Thoughts overwhelm my mind, and it, too, grows hungry. So I close my eyes— not for rest, but to fool myself into believing I’m still alive… barely clinging to hunger.

My dear,
If you ever pass through this place, or somewhere like it, don’t call my name—I’ve forgotten my face since the first shell fell, and I left my voice buried beneath the rubble.

As for my name— I once ate it, when hunger became too much to bear.

#SiegeOfElFasher