We send you our children, our hopes, our dreams and futures
you return them bent and broken
a breath away from shattering
And you have the gall to ask
Why are you all so overprotective?
We’re the ones who piece their bodies back together
we’re the ones who scrub their blood off the floor
And still, you have the gall to ask
Why not let go?
We hold on tight
because those moments of joy, pain and laughter
might become empty spaces in photographs
if they, for an instant, slip from our grasp.
We send you our children, full of hope
You send back body bags.
About the author
An emerging multilingual writer, Rafeif Ismail is committed to creating stories which explore the rich diversity of this continent, hoping that one day there can be stories told in all mediums that all people can relate to. Her current goal is creating works that blend the traditional elements of the arts of her home country of Sudan with elements of classic and contemporary western arts. She is the winner of the 2017 Deborah Cass Prize for Writing with the short story ‘Almitra Amongst Ghosts’. In 2017, Rafeif’s short story ‘Light at The End’ was published along with the works of three other emerging African writers in the anthology Ways of Being Here, a joint project of the Centre for Stories and Margret River Press. She is currently working on her first novel and hopes to also write for theatre and screen. She can be found exploring Twitter @rafeifismail.