…How did you manage to open the windows and escape, Hisham? What gave you the courage to flee? Was it the tree drawn next to the house tempting you to climb its branches, or did the smiling sun at the top of the page call you to jump and tug at its tangled hair? Why didn't you stay inside the warm house and keep me with you forever, and who will now occupy that magical drawer...? Who will entertain the child who hid behind the same tree so she would never grow up? By tearing the colored paper with the house, the sun with messy hair, the tree, and the child hiding behind it, you have torn the page of my existence in life, and ripped my original identity, leaving me without belonging, without origin, and without a haven for my soul to fly to whenever the claws of time wound me… Maryam Shams, a Lebanese writer and lawyer. Her works include 'Zaat Areq' (Poetry), Arab Scientific Publishers, 2014.

Publishing house: Dar Al-Farabi Publishing and Distribution. Number of Pages: 152. Year of publication: 2015