this flag is a gun that spits out soldiers

instead of bullets

and I don’t know how to make peace

with my weaponised mind

or these feet that fear the dirt

or this tongue that won’t trust river water
I confuse liberation with loneliness

and my nation with a strangled kite

trying to break its chain
this body is a landmine

buried in stolen soil
this body is a thread

strung between two continents,

untold wars and forced evictions
raised for a world that never existed

in a country invented by brutal men.