Cover story
Poem from "A
World Between: Poems Stories and Essays by Iranian-Americans"
- a collection of writings by 30 authors and poets edited by Persis M.
Karim and Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami (1999, George Braziller Inc., New York;
352 pages).
In Exile
By Laleh Khalili
Azizam, shamefaced I am, just shamefaced.
The other day, you know,
I denied being yours
I denied being you
I denied it all
the other day,
I had to learn to unlearn you
the other day
Azizam, how does one recount a story
in a language no one seems to understand?
There are times when you want to be a profusion of myths
when you know that
dormant histories lie unassumingly in the forgotten subcutaneous
..... region of your rib cage
There are times when you JUST want to declare yourself
in joy
in joy
in pride, even
and you can't
the Esperanto of screaming or laughter or sorrow or rage, raising
..... of eyebrows
or lowering of eyelids
all have different meanings here,
and you know that you will be misconstrued
and you know that you will be misunderstood
and you know that you will be ridiculed.
Azizam, what can one do when
one protects the fragile genealogy of an entire history?
What can one do?
Shamefaced I am, azizam, just shamefaced.
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