I don’t know how to become one with you.
If you’re heaven, then tell me.
I will kneel to every god.
If you’re hell, then tell me.
I will fill the earth with sin.

I don’t know how to become one with you.
If you’re an invaded soil, then tell me.
I will make my skin your flag.
If you are, as I am, a gypsy,
draw a border around me:
make me your country.

© Abdulla Pashew. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2014 by Hemn Bakr and Alana Marie Levinson-LaBrosse. All rights reserved.