REFUGEES IN THEIR OWN LAND, CAPTIVES UNDER THEIR OWN SKY

“The Universe is a Small ocean, it seems, on the Shores of which sailboats sink” says [Turkish poet] Ahmet Telli…
On the shore where we sink, is our homeland…

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“Fit life into your home” they say.
The insides of our homes are now foreign to us!
Feelings of hopelessness, insecurity, boredom, suffocation, laziness and captivity are experienced one after the other…

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We are rotting away!
“Fit life into half of the island” they tell us.
In the words of Küçük İskender, our eyes don’t fit our faces… [Translator’s note: another Turkish poet whose first book is titled ‘Gözlerim Yüzüme Sığmıyor’ (My Eyes Don’t Fit On My Face)]

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Like a wriggling fish!
We are at the end of the [fishing] line and they are baiting us.
“We can buy all your values” they say.
“Gratitude” someone says, in the era of loyalty!

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We suffocate in the dust of the earth, our wings break midway in life and we grow a longing for the sky.
We are twisting in the void, like a branch foreign to its trunk, we have foolish joys like a forest rejoicing at its own fire.
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Gravely ill is this country!
Hurt…
Orphaned…
Wounded…
Fallen silent while screaming, whispering, crushing its roots…
It has lived the lie as truth.
And continues to live so…
This country is still bleeding…
Still drawing blood.
Like a sheep…
This country is like a flock, dragged by a shepherd…

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There is a saying, and only now I understand its importance…
The words of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke…
“The sky expands as the birds fly…”
We lie on feather pillows but in cages…
Refugees in their own land, captives under their own sky, desperate in their own hearts…

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“Fit your half dreams into your hearts” they say…
We pick up half smiles lost on paths missing their utopia…
Not possible!
These paths do not smile.

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It is dreams that have no borders…
On the shores of an island, several generations are sinking.
Our insides ache…

Source: REFUGEES IN THEIR OWN LAND, CAPTIVES UNDER THEIR OWN SKY