What is Home? | Mosab Abu Toha

What is home:
it is the shade of trees on my way to school before they were uprooted.
It is my grandparents’ black-and-white wedding photo before the walls crumbled.
It is my uncle’s prayer rug, where dozens of ants slept on wintry nights before it was looted and put in a museum.
It is the oven my mother used to bake bread and roast chicken before a bomb reduced our house to ashes.
It is the café where I watched football matches and played—

My child stops me: Can a four-letter word hold all of these?

October 29, 2023 —Mosab Abu Toha