Caterina Domenghini

                                       If
                                       In
                             a Grain
                               of Sand
                                      I
                                    Find
                           the Hand of
my Mother, what would the Desert be?

                                    And 

                                     If
                                     In
                          the Pain
                              of Lands
                                     I
                               Stay for
                                 my Kid,
          would all the Rest of You just Flee?

                                                                Fleets
            are not made for Us; we float, face
                                  down in water, bodies
                                                 swollen with words unsaid, un-
                                                  wanted, with arched white spines
                                                  wobbling on the surface, peering at the sky.

                                                                                      Hatred is a word for the
                                                                                                    Unknown; for when
                                                                                                     I
                                                                                                   sink
                                                                                                     I
                                                                                                  think just like
                                                                                                    U would;
                                                                                                    U should
                                                                                                Align Your
                                                                                                           Soul
                                                                                                        with
                                                                                                 Mine;
                                                                                                    I  am (a)
                                                                                             (h) U ma n,
                                                                                                    I

**

Caterina Domeneghini is studying for a DPhil in English Literature at Wolfson College, Oxford