24 AusTRAlIAN QuARTeRlY OCT–DEC 2017

ARTICle BY: CarOline GraHam

i

n the hills around Aleppo the

wild grasses that homo sapiens

first cultivated twelve millennia

ago still bear seed; except now

they’re springing up amongst

the rubble of a fallen city. According

to Francesca Borri, a journalist who

lived through two years of relentless

bombardment: ‘Aleppo is nothing but

rubble.’^1

one of the earliest of human settle-

ments on the River Queiq, the city

we know as Aleppo expanded into

one day we’ll go back to Aleppo, you said.

You don’t mean it literally.

Darling, four years ago we shouted for change

And now we are citizens of border towns.

We go from Turkey, to Lebanon, to Egypt,

But we don’t find Aleppo ...

And I don’t write poetry any more.

From ‘After Aleppo,’ Jehan Bseiso, 14.1.15

There is no greater nor more harrowing drama on our watch,

than the slow death of the great city of Aleppo.

Jan egeland, norwegian Refugee Council, 2015

The Lost City:

Homage to Aleppo

iMAGE

: © Alex Watson-Flickr