please you say    we are not chickens
foxes and stoats will not eat us      
if you let us out we will dig ditches    
plant potatoes     pick beans
but we have no eggs to give you

*

your parents fold your neighbour's discarded clothes
so you can lie
between the tracks
sleepers they say    smiling their thin smiles

*

you dream you're travelling
in a great train
across a continent that prides itself
on indoor toilets    running water
parks to play in on the way home

you dream of white noise    a murmur of cars
taking children
to parties   to ballet lessons   
 

*

someone's found a football
your parents clap and shout
as you kick it into the fence

     hey hey hey

*

in the evenings
Nizar sings and plays his oud
and everyone cries