Rameen Aslam is a Year 11 student of Dubai Gem Private School.
When she’s not reading whatever she can get her hands on – be it the existence of aliens or an article on world peace.
Rameen spends her time experimenting with 26 letters of the alphabet, and how they can be strung together to create such unique and compelling meanings.
She believes poetry is unfathomably captivating, and a form of artistic expression that strikes a chord in one’s heart.
Having written her first poem at the age of seven, Rameen gets inspiration from the simplest of things around her: the hues of a winter sunrise, the flickering of a candle flame, or even the cratered full moon.
Building Bridges: A Study of the Ocean
Sometimes, I find myself wondering what the ocean is made of.
Is it the foaming tide that soaked my toes one summer,
When the future was far away
And I was trapped in little-kid wonderings?
Or, is it the bizarre blend of hydrogen and oxygen inexplicably combined together,
An embodiment of the colour blue?
Or maybe, it is the body of the refugee
Who never quite found a home for himself,
Whose heart is a mere half-beating, tangled mess of veins and endless pain?
Perhaps the ocean is the blood of yesterday’s casualties,
That flashed across my television screen,
Eyes clouded with a ghastly sheen.
I am trying to be both happy and pay attention to the world around me,
And I’m not sure if both are possible at the same time.
They’ve told us not to burn our bridges,
But right here in front of my eyes,
Kerosene is kissing the wood and burning it to ash and embers.
Don’t we deserve a second chance?
We can build not just a bridge, but an empire from these ashes,
For there is always more than one way to heal our world.
Sometimes, I find myself wondering what the ocean is made of.
And right now,
It seems like hope coloured in shades of ultramarine.
About the School
Dubai Gem was founded in 1973 on a small block and was known as Dubai Nursery School and Crèche. It began with about twenty students, the oldest being five and the youngest only a month old. Every million mile long journey begins with one tiny footstep. Hard work and dedication have resulted in the growth of Dubai Gem.
Now in every corridor, every classroom, at every table, sits a student, hopeful and ambitious about his or her future. Many students regard Dubai Gem as another home where people care about their future and give them encouragement and support. Dubai Gem is well known for being organized with all grades, from FS1 to Year 13, having gifted, goal-
