Stormy seas swim silently No decency, no apology. In every crevice of the mind The waters drown, reason.   Battle ensues, gasping for breath Waves envelop fragile air Thoughts reach out for pockets of hope Amongst the sea, destruction.  …

on the day, on the night, at the right moment, the perfect hour, you make your entrance covered in the blood of all the women in your past. you rage, your first battle cry to let the earth know that…

Why should I hurt? Why? When I treat even stones with kindness. I do not want to cover my ears nor cry tears of sadness. I do not want to dive into my thoughts nor speak words of harm. I…

I was brought up to live through agony To fly with my bleeding wings As I survive My freedoms, stolen from me Since I was announced a girl My tongue, slashed My Being, made invisible As I survive   I…

The quiet is deafening, When all is laid down, Every piece of me, What parts must I keep? What must be removed? Who told me all I know? Being me is so simple, Yet they made it sound so hard….

For the women whose fathers Never stayed, Never poured the love You deserved into your soul. For the women who found love With the men like their fathers, Who fear finding a man Like their fathers. For the women whose…

as companion to her zaatar sandwiches raining olive oil – daily, my grandmother cried salt-water tears into her soil growing cucumbers plucked and offered her daughter as sustenance for the long walk to Canada. it is why salt-water seeds of…

Dawn reminds me of my father, when I hear the morning birds I think of him waking me in the still-dark gently, his voice softer and older than I remember. ‘It’s time to pray, habooba,’ he says.   Like my visits home,…

Don’t label me by my race; my olive-beige skin only goes so deep. The features painted on my face simply frame my expressions and the words I speak.   Don’t label me by my heritage; a history lesson of my…

Like Farrokhzad I ask you to bring a lamp and a window when you come.   Please do not forget them.   I am here sitting in the dark repeating the same thoughts in my head over and over again….

he would pick the fullest one from his tree lift and place me next to him equal so i could watch as he unfolded the pomegranate placing every seed gently into rose-water & melted sugar.   i would reach push…