Status Updates From Forest of Noise: Poems

“I’ve personally lost three friends to war, a city to darkness, and a language to fear. This was not easy to survive, but survival proved necessary to master. But of all things, losing the only photo of my grandfather under the rubble of my house was a real disaster.”

“My four-year-old daughter, Yaffa, wearing a pink dress given to her by a friend, hears a bomb explode. She gasps, covers her mouth with her dress’s ruffles. Yazzan, her five-and-a-half-year-old brother, grabs a blanket warmed by his sleepy body. He lays the blanket on his sister. You can hide now, he assures her.”