September/ 11/01
I cannot walk
My nerves have failed my knees
Doctors say: She is scared
I cannot write, my hands are short
my soul dried up
not one word
empty chest
blinded eyes
no poetry for me
I am too black to write
Born on the wrong side of the world
My eyes are too dark to see
Once I wrote about the roses,
Now the joy is lost
September/14/01
I do not speak
My accent is too bruised
Not one word, one word to say; to write
I do not go (out)
I cry
Baby in my womb vomits in anger
I don't want sex
I don't want food; I do not leave the four-walled room
I am tired
I don't want to hear, see, or read
I want to have the bluest eyes
I want to have the blondest hair
I want to have the tallest legs to show off by the sea
Does it sound American enough?
I want
I want
I want
I want to know why when those bluest eyes,
blondest hair, bombed Oklahoma,
racial profiling wasn't in the news!
September/11/01
God please let it not be Iranians,
Let it not be Middle Eastern, let it not be!
Please God let it not be those who look like my brothers
Don't you go today!
My brother sits at home all day long, all night long!
September/20/01
No
No poetry for me
The sounds of spring,
Flying birds!
The Mud,
Covering the ears!
Tears falling,
Fear's pulling
I fear
Lives lost in the ashes
Broken souls
Unborn child
For you
I will change my very being
Tonight
I will ask god to give me blond hair
I will ask god to give me blue eyes
I will ask god to let me
I will ask god to let me
I will ask god to let me…
Today I heard
Today I heard
Today I learned
Today I learned a new word: Hijackers
Today I learned: my hopes are dried
Today I know about not being born in the right part of the world
October/07/01
I am not an Arab
I keep telling them
Well what's the difference?
You are a Muslim!
I am not a Muslim
Well what's the difference?
…
No, not even you know the
the difference
between Indians,
Afghanis, Muslims,
Sikhs, Hindus and Jews.
more than ever, there is no difference.
My thoughts/ recent months
United States of Immigrants