The Emigrée by Rumens.

context

• born in London but lived in many places like Belfast and Wales

key quotes

• “there once was a country… I left it as a child, but my memory of it is sunlight-clear”

• “it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants but I am branded by an impression of sunlight” (extreme contrast to marks in London")

• “I comb its hair and love its shining eyes”

• “My city takes me dancing through the city of walls”

oppression:

• “They accuse me of absence, they circle me, they accuse me of being dark in their free city”

• “I have no passport, there’s no way back at all”

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