Exile means hours and hours trying to recall the colour of my mother’s hair

Gazing at the face of the elderly women passing by

To measure the depth of my mother’s wrinkles

Exile means glancing at the street which is before me

Through a window forever closed  in another country

Or every morning stepping onto a road

Which never brings me back home

Exile means sitting eating alone

Besieged by the people hung on a wall

Exile means

Tasting the tea in my mind

taking a spoon into my mouth

In search of my mother’s cooking

Exile means caressing my cold souvenirs

To keep warm the memory of hands frozen in time

Or greeting in my dream

Those that have lost their ways in the distance

Exile means trying to guess the faces of infants who won’t get to know me

Or imagining the burial rites of those who once loved me

Exile means

Owning an ID card without an  identity

Owning an address without a home

Owning freedom of speech at the cost of my mother tongue