* Read by Sara Naili

(To our homes in our absence after war and abandonment)

Sadness is
visiting the ruins of your house in dreams
and coming back without dust on your hands.

Delicacy is
watering the wilted flowers
in your neighbour’s garden
because yours have perished under the bombs.

Distance is
the geography of domination
that separates cities a thousand miles apart.
In one you leave your laundry on the clothesline
in the other you stretch out your hand to the wind
and try to take it in.

To the hand that hovers over the doorbell of the old house
who can say:
“Homes do not belong to those who have had to leave them”.

CROSSING THE WATERS 2
Voice: Sara Naili
Sound and mix: Graeme Thomson & Silvia Maglioni

Widad Nabi is a Kurdish-Syrian poet born in Kobani. She lives and works in Berlin.