Language [barriers/baggage]

My mother is not a fan of airports                                             
always on edge that she is leaving parts of her                                      [luggage/language]                        behind. 

I watch her wince as an employee rifles through her                          [luggage/language]                        deciding what she can and cannot
keep. 

My friend Mariam moved here from Abu Dhabi 
and can switch between Arabic and English  faster
than one of our lecturers flipping through a presentation. 
Every time she opens her mouth everyone wants to know 
how she manages to find space for all that                                             [luggage/language] 

Sometimes they stop talking mid-speech 

and I watch their faces      growing with frustration 
as they struggle to find the right word 
                                                                       or 
                                                        meaning       in one language         or                                                                                   even both 

and I myself

have begun to suspect that sometimes even the smallest vowel    can be 

                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                            lost in [transit/translation] 

​

Nawaal K is 20-something student currently living in the UK who spends her time between cleaning out stains in her lab coat and rearranging the poems saved in her notes app. You can find some of the ones that made it out alive on her Instagram account @flxw.d. She hopes to see you there.