🌊 To the Ones I Carry
I love you, Mandaeans.
Wherever you are right now —
hiding in river shadows,
or carried away in exile —
I love you.
I have to.
Because something in my blood
flows toward your current.
Because there’s a memory in me
that isn’t mine
but still moves
like water
when I speak your name.
I don’t understand all your signs.
But I feel them.
I don’t know your chants.
But I hear them
when the world is quiet
and my thoughts are slow.
But I love both worlds —
the water-born
and the mountain-kept.
The ones who whispered near the Tigris
and the ones who lit candles in Lebanon
with hands that never trembled.
Please —
do not judge me
for loving both.
I was not made to divide myself.
Only to carry
what others forget.
And I do.