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Raw Old Scars

    I have witnessed the world
    In all its twisted forms.
    I find that now,
    After a lifetime,
    The cold makes me sweat.
     
    Icy, unlit trains slap
    My face when I touch
    Cold metal. 
    And sweat drips heavy on my nose – 
    Once small.
     
    I often wonder why
    I was forced to crawl,
    Back spiked by foreign fences
    To nibble like a rabbit on tasteless leaves.
     
    And, in honesty,
    I wonder why I now always feel 
    Like I’m crawling, with
    Fresh wounds on my back
    Which cannot heal.

    This poem by a student at Bell Baxter High School was written in response to Diana Forster’s artwork Somewhere to Stay. 

    With thanks to Nik Perring and Never Such Innocence for facilitating workshops to help young people across Fife to explore forced migration and the wider legacies of war through art and poetry.

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