when i was younger
i lived in a citadel built on sacred earth overlooking ancient rivers dijlah, forat fragrant and fertile where palm trees floated upon clouds of molten gold one day, the world discovered and fought over the riches beneath the sand we were forced to abandon our ancestral home to seek solace on distant foreign landby Ahmad Al-Dabagh
‘how we became refugees’ is an allegory for the Iraq war which resulted in the deracination and displacement of millions. It is a personal story of mine, written from the perspective of a parent who has to explain to their child why they left their homeland and how they became refugees. My family and I fled Iraq quite abruptly due to the war and we migrated to Australia in 1994.