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  • 25 Lines or Fewer

Truth is I would like to escape myself

By Nour Al Ghraowi

Truth is I would like to escape myself.
                                     Detach my body from my skin,
peel it layer by layer to uncover
                                     beneath the surface of petals
and thorns piled up year after year,
                                     who I am and who I want to be.
I want to be the flower that grows
                                     in dirt, the feather that flies free between
the cracks of fences. A wise woman
                                     once told me, don’t worry about you,
worry about who you could be.
                                     I want to be the woman who sits
on a desk and writes pieces of oceans,
                                     rivers on a white space in a place
where imagination has no border.
 

Illustration by Linda Dalal Sawaya of a human figure coming out of a flower
Illustration by Linda Dalal Sawaya
 

Poet Bio

Poet Nour Al Ghraowi

Nour Al Ghraowi is a Syrian writer, activist, and educator. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Dame Magazine, Mizna, Porter House Review, and others. She writes about social justice, migrant identity, and in the hope of changing the Western view of the Middle East and the Arabic language, which are often viewed as inimical.

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