Archive - Dec 26, 2007 - Article

Not an imperial year for the Empire

Being reflective; personally taking stock of a situation, or issue, seems to be antonymic to the nature of most people who prefer that matters be handled by leaders of groups they belong to. Whether the issue is government, war, crime, drug-addiction, or most anything else, they are quick to pass the buck, determining that it really isn't up to them to take stock... with that 50's mentality that "father knows best." And as a year comes to an end, instead of personally taking stock and weighing what is happening to their nation, Americans' choice is to keep the mind relaxed and let the President tell them in January's State of the Union speech "how things really are." Let the lies and b-s roll! >>>

Remember Jesus?

This is the first Christmas that I am without my children. But I am not sentimental about Christmas not having really grown up with it. As a child in Iran I remember having a tree in my room and singing carols in Mrs. Hekmat and The Community schools, the former run by a wonderful Jewish woman and the latter by old American missionaries. My mother having also attended the same missionary school run by American’s in Iran had a soft spot in her heart for Christmas and indulged me in my requests for a tree. But Christmas was, in truth, an import, something taken from the westerners and enjoyed, a novelty like Lego blocks. I am an atheist with very little tolerance for the pseudo-spirituality that has gripped the secular world of perfectly educated people>>>

Encounter

Once again, it was he the same pervert who followed me the moment I fell asleep. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. The minute I fall asleep, I have to run for my life. He’d never caught up with me yet because when I run out of breath and seconds before he reaches me, I trip and hit my head on a curb or run into traffic light pole on the street corner and wake up in sweat. I’m living a rerun episode of the same nightmare over and again. Last time as I was escaping from this maniac I said to myself, “I can’t go on like this, I can’t run forever especially in my sleep. The main purpose of sleep is to rest not to run! A rapist or a murderer he might be, I will face him.”

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بیماری خود برتربینی

ما ایرانی ها در آن آخرین سالهای عصر پهلوی بر این باور بودیم که این همسایه های ما – که غیر ایرانی اند - حالا حالا ها کار دارند تا به پای فرهنگ و سواد و دانش و ثروت ودیگر محسنات ما ایرانی ها برسند. حاصل ِ آن طرز تفکر که متاسفانه، فراگیر هم بود آن بود که ما ایرانی ها که خیلی بهتر از بقیه بودیم فقط یک درد داشتیم و آن درد "تنهایی" بود، هیچ ملتی در منطقه هم شان ما نبود.ما بودیم و خودمان و اگر قرار بود خود را با کسی مقایسه کنیم باید به خیلی دوردستها شاید اروپا، آنهم نه تمام قاره، و یا به امریکا نگاه می کردیم تا شاید ملتی در خور ِ قیاس می یافتیم. >>>

My Tameless Trickster

with bouncing steps and smell of wild
she walks on the streets cornered
by tickle for trembling rapture
halts in the middle of a side show
half ogre, half angel, fully androgynous
dressed in psychedelic red and blue
baggy suit with big buttons
she laughs like a hyena

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