Malformed Maps

BY Zeina Jhaish

Painting created Kamélia Bourahla.

I created a map

to make sense of

where I should be

of places that could

protect me

from the worst things

that happened in history

I found myself in places

where I am not whole

We could not create

a map that contained us

we are not cartographers

lost at sea in a bottle

filled with no direction 

to where we belong 

scratched by pens 

that look like knives 

with the ink

that misdirected us

into coming here.

Zeina Jhaish is a Palestinian-Canadian Education student. She enjoys writing and performing poetry and writing prose and news stories. She is passionate about activism in politics and trying to make a change in the world through her art with words.