Poems on Family Basma Bsharat
I tell them about apartheid, And I describe checkpoints And electricity and water cut offs. I recount the guns The humility The fear and the anger I tell them about my grandmother, Who should’ve gotten better Who we lost early because She didn’t get the treatment she deserved And all the little boys who Didn’t get to grow up Just because. And the ones who Had to grow up too fast. I tell them about all of this, So they ask me, “Then why go?” Little do they know, That is exactly why I go.
I’ll never forget The night we found a litter of kittens, Sleeping in my grandfather's closet. Wrapped comfortably in our thick blankets. “Why are they here?” We asked My aunt smiled, Carrying a small bowl of water to them. “They just needed somewhere safe,” She softly tells us, Her smile a secret that None of us understood.
Artwork by Nisrin Shahin IG: Nisrin.Shahin 14
