From the earth I come

To the earth I come

From the heart of Africa

From the kidneys of Asia

From India with spices I come

From a deep Amazonian forest

From a Tibetan meadow I come

From an ivory land

From far

From everywhere around me

From where there are trees, mountains, rivers and seas

From here, there, from everywhere

From the womb of the Mediterranean I come

From a mental scar

From closed borders

From a camp with a thousand tents

From shores with Alan* the Kurd I come

From a bullet wound

From the face of a lone child

From a single mother’s sigh

From a cut in an inflatable boat about to sink

From a bottle of water for fifty to share

From frozen snot in a toddler’s nose

From a tear on a father’s cheek

From a hungry stomach

From a graffiti that reads, ‘I was here once’

From another one a tree says ‘I love life’

From a missing limb

Like a human with everything I come to share the space.

fr Dear Refugee, Smokestack Books, UK 2019)

Amir Darwish is a British Syrian poet & writer of Kurdish origin who lives in London. Born in Aleppo he came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2003. He has a BA in history from Teesside University, UK; MA in International Relations of the Middle East from Durham University, UK; and an MA in creative and life writing from Goldsmiths University, UK. Amir published his work in the UK, USA, Pakistan, India, Finland, Turkey, Canada, Singapore & Mexico. His work is translated into Arabic, Bengali, Estonia, Finnish, Italian, Spanish and Turkish, amongst other languages. Currently he is a PhD candidate at Northampton University.