To fall in love in Dimashq
Is to dare to hope in an absurdly hopeless place
Is the courage to see the beauty amidst the ruins, the chaos, the death
Is to chase an impossible dream
A dream where not only does your love survive, but where you both still have a place to call home

To fall in love in Dimashq
Is to grieve the death of a love while it’s being born
Because you know it can’t go on

To fall in love in Dimashq
You need to learn to live off the crumbs
A stolen touch, a hidden kiss on the staircase in the dark, a late night passion-filled embrace in his car as he’s dropping you off to your parents place, because there’s no where to go.

To fall in love in Dimashq
You need to accept the repression and discrimination
You need always keep one eye open
Because in Dimashq, love is forbidden and its expression shameful and punishbale

To fall in love in Dimashq
Is to listen to old arabic songs and imagine what love would have been like if you never left
Or if the war never broke out
Or if he had left with you

To fall in love in Dimashq
Is to imagine an alternate reality where life is pure and simple
Is to fantasise about simply existing with someone with your own blood without the fear and the trauma that surviving a war brought to you both
Because whether you lived through it or were lucky enough to leave, your heart will never be the same, your body will always remember, your soul will always be strung, stuck between two worlds

To fall in love in Dimashq
Is to torture your already broken heart
To dwell in an unattainable fantasy
To have to be satisfied with a kiss today and maybe a hug tomorrow, never daring to think past that
because tomorrow may never come.