Dust and Gasoline
8/8/2025
you smell of dust and gasoline
just like that, I'm young, my heart stops
I'm playing palm tree shadow tag
I'm picking fruits from rooftops
we didn't leave you burning, love
we left you right before
we sought cover from the sandstorm
but could not seek much more
if what we know now
were known back then
would we still have left?
drawn a deep enough breath?
to make the smells last
mixing future with past
what we know now
that we didn't back then
about homeland is that
we never saw you again
(pictured: me standing on my grandparents' rooftop in Baghdad
weeks before America's so-called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in 2003)
You made me cry Yassooa. I read it ten times :)
Awesome captured moments of your childhood. Thank you!
It was so hard having to leave our family behind in Iraq while anticipating an attack on them by the US, which came less than three weeks after we left. I was crying all the way back to NH.
These were difficult days...Years.
And now, once again, the crimes against Palestine are much worse, if this is even possible!
We'll be here standing for you Palestine, until you are free.
A poignant reflection that seems fitting for any diaspora whose members fled from any number of U.S. imperial wars. You were a cute kid, Yussra! Now grown into a wise young woman who shares her thoughts and feelings with us.