البصرة

Kristine Ho

Where the Tigris and Euphrates convulse,

The beautiful city of Basra is made,

A city filled of simplistic splendour,

Love, poetry, sorrow, kindness,

This is what makes Basra.

I see its streets, roads, walls, everything,

I can describe it all in perfect detail.

Such a mysterious place, filled with magic.

It is my home, where my blood is,

Where my father grew up,

Under both,

Yahya and Abdul Ghani.

This city is me.

The thing is,

I am a foreigner to this city.

I have never seen it,

I don’t know what the writings on the wall mean,

I can only wish to speak the languages of my people there,

But yet I know all its details,

This is because when I think of you,

I am in Basra.