In the name of strangled family politics,

with my mom declaring independence from

a patriarchal kingdom that my uncle rules,

The hatred for my mother was flying at me

Like a missile

attacked at the dawn of another world war

I don’t want you near my son

And my buildings are now flattened to two dimensions

With rambles of buildings and hospitals all over the street

As I drag myself to the demilitarized zone not knowing what to do after the bombings

Sitting at the edge of the bed

Staring at the clock

Hoping my teardrop doesn't fall

I’m not weak

but the moment I see my grandma entering the room

It drops and pours down

Did your uncle do something

She knows immediately

But we both know that the bombings will be left unknown to the rest of the world

I don’t want to further the tensions

I want to go back to peace

Another day an atomic bomb dropped

no warnings

just a night at his kingdom,

once my grandpa’s kingdom,

On the way to leaving,

my grandma next to me

SL*T

the thundering sound rumbles

And again it was sealed between us

– a classified document

that breathes in my nightmares and nightmares only

But I also knew she wasn’t an enemy

Just a queen who lost her power to her son

So I cried to my queen

Forgive him, mom

a 10 year old too young to understand

complexity under the name of family

A family left out of ‘family’ affairs

from ‘family’ portraits

from ‘family’ vacations

No one acknowledged the smallest country

Isolated from world affairs and excluded from decisions

Destroyed the smallest country more than bombing ever could

Years after,

When the war was left abandoned

I secretly crept back to the kingdom

for his kids

And I saw the smallest countries were so small

for the missile, isolation, atomic bomb

For I finally realized

No amount of family politics

Estranged relationships

Should batter the smallest countries

For the smallest country was so small

Look at the smallest country