You're in this dream of cotton plants.
You raise a hoe, swing, and the first weeds
Fall with a sigh. You take another step,
Chop, and the sigh comes again,
Until you yourself are breathing that way
With each step, a sigh that will follow you into town.
That's hours later. The sun is a red blister
Coming up in your palm. Your back is strong,
Young, not yet the broken chair
......
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
They sent me a salwar kameez
&nb sp; peacock-blue,
& nbsp; and another
glistening like an orange split open,
embossed slippers, gold and black
&nbs p; points curling.
Candy-striped glass bangles
&n bsp; snapped, drew blood.
Like at school, fashions changed
&n bsp; in Pakistan -
......
The fourth night I sway
on stage in the school
play is the night before
I'll wait in the hospital
lobby while my parents
sign me over to the doctors.
It's also the final night of the
show, the cast party. It's at
your house and your parents
have it catered. Piles of
......
I was hoping to be happy by seventeen.
School was a sharp check mark in the roll book,
An obnoxious tuba playing at noon because our team
Was going to win at night. The teachers were
Too close to dying to understand. The hallways
Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair. Thus,
A friend and I sat watching the water on Saturday,
Neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves
By hurling large rocks at the dusty ground
And feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard
......
In hallowed halls of learning's sacred light,
Where dreams doth take their winged and lofty flight,
There stands a school, a fortress of delight,
Its beauty found in minds, a radiant sight.
No mere abode of bricks and stones, this place,
But where young minds imbibe knowledge's embrace,
A tapestry, each thread a vibrant grace,
In every classroom, wisdom we do chase.
......
We all sit around
Under fluorescent lighting
This is my nature
In shadows cast by youthful fears,
A tale of lessons learned through tears,
I'd whisper truths to younger me,
A poem woven, wise decree.
"Don't shroud your pain in masks of pride,
For veils of faux esteem can hide,
The ones who hold your heart so dear,
Drifting far when closeness veers.
......
Those brown eyes shine better than pools of honey in the sun,
That brown hair flows better than grass flowing on a windy day,
That voice which seems to be even deeper than the ocean,
That laughter that's music to my ears,
No longer feel the same.
I miss the twinkle in your eyes
I miss the happiness in your voice
I miss that smile on your face
I miss sitting next to you
......
why is it that i can identify more with Ys and Xs
than with written words
is it the fact that they are right there
and the words come from somewhere else
Is it that Xs and Ys i can always count on
they are always in the question
just hidden behind some ones and twos
and always come out when the formulas look for them
......