Far From My People and Their Enemies (بعيدٌ عن أهلي وأعدائهم)

By Ameer Hamad (tr. Hoda Ali)

I don’t belong to anyone

Not even to myself

My childhood climbs the wall

It looks at me from the window

And it tries to scare me

It extends its arm towards me

It pulls me forcefully by my shirt

And it places me in front of a brown-haired child

The country’s flag shines on his forehead

And he stomps the table with his feet

as if he were thousands of soldiers

I cannot see the scene

Except for his shoes that his feet get lost in

And the coloring table underneath them

Biting on the wooden pencils.