Ukraine | Iryna Omelyanchuk | 2023 Four Words A call from Kyiv at 4.50 in the morning. My husband’s best friend. We don’t want to pick up. It keeps ringing.
Ukraine | Anastasiia Dunaieva | 2024 Me? A pit Me? A pit in grandfather’s garden, inside dry leaves, raked together, hits me urine from the tomcat next door and the marbles of a small girl.
Afghanistan | Zainab Fahramand | 2024 Red The shot and the rifle The mirror and beauty The independence and the freedom
Afghanistan | Shahzamir Hataki | 2023 I will always be the wog When I learnt your language, you said “wog.” When I went to school, to uni, you said “wog.” “This is our school, don’t get too comfortable.”
Syria | Rojin Namer | 2024 Village There were fields here, There were delicious tomatoes here, There was my grandma here, There were the best football pitches here.
Syria | Mohamad Zahra | 2023 Homeland is a cemetery They camped before the pearly gates and screamed, just like the others screamed, the others whose paths had strayed, their screams had no identity.
Turkey | Bahadȋn Akhan | 2023 The Word Witch Mother’s forlorn dream damns us. So we wail with our first breath. The yellow steppe peoples sutured my lips, turned speech into a personal poison.
Syria | Abdulsalam Atto | 2024 When I came into the world When I was born, they whispered in Arabic the name of God into my ear.
Germany | Helena von Beyme | 2018 I’d Like to Say You Are Multi-Coloured Germany, you can be grey Your wind blows through narrow streets Through blonde and brown and black hair
Germany | Rachel Ulrich | 2019 Language Is Life You read your poem In your native language About your longing About your life And I don’t really understand
Nigeria | Glory Osazuwa | 2019 Night Time Night is cold Night is sad for some Night is so dark Night comes and goes Like my love for you
Germany | Zoё Matt-Williams | 2018 »Other« Hot summer day. Noon. The trees are sweating when my friend tells me he wants to leave England because no other country on earth hates the “other“ as much.
