Sun/شمس

Narratio Founder Ahmed Badr partnered with Lighthouse Relief to compose a poem in memory of Aylan Kurdi, the young boy whose body washed up on the shores of Turkey in 2015. The poem is recited below by the youth of the Ritsona Refugee camp in mainland Greece.  

Poem Text: 

We still remember your eyes.

How they made the sea tremble.

How they reminded us that

Our mothers held us in the same way.

Our fathers’ shadows were just as tall.

Our ancestors shared the same breath.

Remember how the sun hugged our countries?

a golden diary for every soul, young and old.

Every page a testament to your resilience.

We carry your spirit on our growing shoulders.

We've learned to hold our memories within our bodies, that way we can migrate with our history.

After all, our most prized possessions are the ones that can only be taken away by God.

The sun now embraces us in a new land.

We try to return the embrace, but we hear

Aleppo's song in the distance.

We hear

Baghdad's poetry shake the ocean floor.

The cities sound impatient for our return.

They speak of lost times, desperate journeys, and new worlds.

They tell us that they still have not forgotten.

They tell us that the sun is in our hands, and that it's our job to return it.

We will hold it with shaky palms, and keep it in between our shoulders.

And when the time comes, the world will be as welcoming as our mother's hands,

As tall as the shadows of our fathers

And as eloquent as our Ancestors’ tongues.

The sun will rise tomorrow, and so will your spirit.

And in that moment, we will hug you both.