POETRY
WITH LIGHT IN MY EYES & LOVE IN MY HEART, I DREAM OF LIBERATION
LIKE THE GOLDEN MOON
Like the golden moon, I shimmer
Sultans have fought for my light,
With battles and bloodshed
Dwarfed by pain and desire,
As I beamed across the sky.
Man cannot contain my power.
I am the embryo of gold.
Lead courses through my veins.
I am the descendant of Babylonian knowledge.
Alchemists sought to understand,
How something so simple
Could blind all mankind.
And the day have come and gone,
Where my beaming rays have tarnished
Leaving nothing but a cryptic reflection
Of riches once borne.
My power hid beneath the earth,
Left to be discovered by anxious hands
Groping in the darkness,
Fervently searching until
I emerge.
And, today like the golden moon, I shimmer
Wrapped in golden ribbons.
I await the gentle hands of Love
To free me from myself,
And together we shall carry the night sky
Filled with hidden precious metals,
Back to Babylon.
BEAUTIFULLY BROKEN CITY
This is a beautifully broken city.
Bustling bodies brave through the streets
Through ancient pathways
Carved from limestone
Crumbling beneath their feet.
This is a beautifully broken city.
Masked faces adorned with machine guns
Overlook the Kingdom Halls
Of pharaohs and kings
Sipping on sweet sugar cane juice.
This is a beautiful broken city.
Youthful faces dance to Oum Khalthoum
Dubbed to the soundtracks of walkie talkie static
And street vendors cries
As they are rushed away from their homes.
This is a beautiful broken city.
Unborn artists paint the skylines
Brushing dust on the speckled buildings
As they look over their shoulders
And prepare their IDs to be checked.
Cairo, oh Cairo
You are a beautifully broken.
Just like your lost generations
Calling on the dreams
Of a revolution that never came.
PARI
azizam,
you called me pari
as divine fires
warmed your soul
in your eyes
beauty & love
dance beneath the moon
until my body rose
your heart from the dead
repenting for sins
you hadn’t yet committed
& i already punished
joonam,
i lost my heart
at the gates of heaven
refused entrance
i found your tears
as you cast away
the child’s prayer
& called on the divs
to save you
from the moral tempest
of the pari
you discovered.
janam,
the divs you brought
destroyed the forest
where a pari
could find her home
now,
i must wander
knowing a mortal man
could never be with
a pari
like me.
THE LONGEST DREAM
It started with fear.
The solstice opened the earth
And long lost souls
Came out of the night sky
Bringing us into the longest dream.
Our slumber came and left
But we stayed in the clouds.
Dancing in the winds
Rainstorms took us apart
And the moon brought us back
To the longest dream
That ever was.
I was saved in the arms of love
My shallowest breath slowed
My spirit rested
At long last my pain
Was cradled in the heart
Of the beloved.
The winds sang us
Spiralling into tornadoes
Drawing us apart.
We stayed in trance
And the distance
Called upon the nightmares.
It returned with a confidence
With the summer solstice
And the opening of spirits
That hypnotized us once again
Dancing to the trance
Of the longest dream
That ever was.
NO ANSWERS
She has no answers.
She came to us in the darkness.
When all the pathways to light,
Were obscured by death.
And agony had left us in solitude
Climbing out of quick sand.
She has no rules for us to follow,
Only bodies to touch
And warmth to give.
Love is a joy untold.
We will not hear her whispers
Or feel her presence
Until she has carried us home.
He worries.
He can’t give me what I deserve.
Yet,
I rejoice in all he has given.
And take each moment
Like a bird in flight.
The earth beneath me
Reveals only possibility
That the wind will propel me forward
Far away from here.
How fearful
We must be to love
In a time of death.
How foolish I must be
To touch him
When he is so broken.
But she told me so
And I listened carefully
To her guiding songs
A remembrance of a future
Beyond wars,
Beyond pain,
beyond death,
beyond destruction.
So,
I fell in love in war
Only to find myself
Living in fits of nostalgia
For a life
Before wars,
Before pain,
Before death,
Before destruction.
Still,
I fell in love.
And I got no answers.
No answers at all.
Except,
That this war
Brought me his love
And maybe,
It can take it all away.
TRINITY OF FUNDAMENTALS
i spent so many years,
looking for Love
i forgot about Revolution.
i spent so many years
looking for Revolution,
i forgot about Love.
yet, i never thought about Life
only Love & Revolution.
only to find out,
it was Life all along,
that sent me looking
for Love & Revolution.
Love, Life & Revolution.
MAGICIAN
I have convinced myself
You don’t exist
Just as I convinced myself
He didn’t exist
When I laid in your arms.
He was the love of my life
Just as you were mine.
But both of you
Became my magic tricks
Disappearing and reappearing
At the drop of a hat.
Your eyes burned into my soul
Just as his tore into my heart.
Where he left off
You picked up
And what you were missing
He had tenfold.
When did I become this magician?
When will the magic tricks end?
Maybe when I realize
That I am both
The magic and the tricks.
For isn’t it me who keeps
Disappearing and reappearing
Convincing you both that
I don’t exist?
MAKING THE ROUNDS
May you make the rounds
Of all the women of the world.
Whisper to them softly
And play with their hair,
Gaze into their eyes
Under the light of the moon.
May you make the rounds
Of all the women of the world.
And write poems
About their eyelashes,
Painting masterpieces on their backs
To feel their body against yours
Igniting the fires of beneath you.
May you make the rounds
Of all the women of the world.
Hand in hand through foreign streets
Taking care of their tender hearts,
Singing sweet songs of spring
Sending shivers down their spines.
May you make the rounds
Of all the women of the world.
Searching for the passion
In a dream you’ve never wanted,
They’ll return your search
Empty handed and weakened
By the fear that rides their souls
Roaming lost in a sea of lovers.
May you make the rounds
Of all the women of the world.
To finally understand
Why I couldn’t stay
And why you must continue,
To make the rounds
Of all the women of the world.
OUR PARENTS
our parents left on stormy seas
seeking refuge in a safer world,
they ran from distant shores
where bodies piled.
they ran from their ringing ears
tracing the falling bombs.
they set out in search of peace.
& when they landed
they were greeted by Fear.
fighting endlessly,
they built shelter with their weakened hands.
so when it came to have children
they fingers were tired.
they were tired
because the ringing still played in their ears
because the bodies still crawled into their dreams
because the Fear had set into their bones.
so they reminded us
of the nightmares the safety could not bring them to forget
of the violence that jolted them awake.
born into the imagination of bloodshed
we sought to recreate this terror from within.
although we lived in peace
the distant echoes of bombs still rung in our ears.
& we discovered old torn photographs
of piled bodies in our minds
with the weight of grief upon our shoulders
sacrifice became the language of love
& guilt the tender hand of affection.
love was bounded by the chains of shame
& expectation swelled with the growing tides.
because as long as we were here
they remembered they weren’t there.
REMEMBERING
ive been remembering my lovers,
each one grander than the last.
i’ve been remembering my loneliness
with all the moments it grew weary.
ive been remembering my heart,
as I climb mountaintops with my eyes shut.
ive been remembering myself,
beginning to feel the dirt beneath my feet
in lost cities of drunken youth.
all I am is but a bird in flight
freed by the blessings of divinity,
landing on golden dunes of stolen civilisations
prepared to uncover beauty.
i have been remembering to live,
making up for all the years i spent dying.
COULD BE A DREAM
This could be a dream.
I have no question of that.
Tomorrow,
I could wake up
And realize it never really happened.
All these lives were lived
On make belief timelines.
The nightmares of this world,
With all of their ecstatic fantasies,
Make it into the greatest,
Never ending
Dream.
So,
Just as we dare
To take control
As we sleep.
Let us remember,
That this one too,
May very well be a dream.
Be courageous!
Make it a story.
To repeat with excitement,
Over a morning coffee
With the greatest of lovers.
NAMESAKE
One day,
I will die
And return home
Where I belong
In the sky.
I will be
The light of the moon
And I will see
The whole world
At once.
I will gaze over
All that is
From the loss
To the love
That fills this earth.
Far above
I will be silent
Listening to the spirit
Of every soul
Softly whispering
The secrets of the heart.
The world will unearth
It’s hidden lovers
Before my grace
As they remember
The days
They have forgotten.
HARVEST MOON
On this harvest moon
I made love to myself.
The eve of my birthday
The stars softly sang sweet lullabies
In the swelling belly of the tides
Against the bleached sand dunes
Kept far away from my desires
My soul sucked the sweet air
And licked the warm mounds
Of the supple glistening mountains
As the wetness of the winds
Dribbled onto my tongue
Quenching my ravenous thirst
For freedom in love and
Love in freedom.
I DANCE LIKE THE MOON
I dance like the moon
I come close and go far
The patterns are clear
To those who see
The guiding force
Of ebbs and flows
Within this sacred union
With the skies above.
In my fullness
I bring light to darkness
And in my distance
I am but a remembrance
Where you shall dream
Of my sacred return
To these skies above.
EVERYTHING & NOTHING
dreamscapes of a lost childhood
intermingle with the suffering
of the world’s grandiose devastation
as Lovers sing eulogies
to corpses lost at sea
in an orchestratic memory
of a fleeting memory
that came minutes
before the Day of Judgment.
fears are blown to the winds
as long as acceptance
guides the tender hearted
in the turbulent waters
of Life’s course.
i dreamt of Joy in fits
of nightmares that
plagued my meaningless existence
under the setting sun
of a day I never believed
would come for me.
the eve of misery
left my days hidden
under thunderous clouds of anger
& my body grew cold
until the touch of Life
dissipated my existence
& i became gold
belonging to a piece of
of everything & nothing.