Inga Seliverstova / Pexels

Which hand has then been placed on you
who did not know how to prostrate?

Which hand that didn’t know the kiss of a mother
placed itself on you?

Which hand sowed the ashes
where the ancestor planted life? 

Life is born from the life of other lives.

Body against body
breath against breath
rooted or abandoned me 

I watch you tremble
and I tremble
I watch you blush
and my blood overflows
I watch you burn
and I suffocate
I’m suffocating

My body next to yours
my breath next to yours

And you return to the earth
like I return to the earth

From my ashes from your ashes
we return
From our ashes
the land will be reborn

Samira Negrouche
Critically acclaimed writer Samira Negrouche was born in Algiers where she continues to live and work. Author of eleven poetry collections, several artists’ books and a collection of essays, she is a poet and translator who enjoys multidisciplinary collaborations, frequently working with musicians, visual artists and choreographers. Her work has been shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and the National Translation Award in Poetry. Her publications in English include The Olive Trees' Jazz and Other Poems (Pleiades Press, 2020), translated by Marilyn Hacker and Solio (Seagull Books, 2024), translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson. 

Nathalie Handal
Nathalie Handal is described as a “contemporary Orpheus.” She has lived in four continents, is the author of 10 award winning books, translated into over 15 languages, including Life in a Country Album, winner of the Palestine Book Award; the flash collection The Republics, lauded as “one of the most inventive books by one of today’s most diverse writers,” and winner of the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing and the Arab American Book Award. Handal is the recipient of awards from the PEN Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Fondazione di Venezia, Centro Andaluz de las Letras, and Africa Institute, among others. She is professor of literature and creative writing at New York University-AD, and writes the literary travel column, “The City and the Writer” for Words without Borders magazine.