Be careful what you wish for

Be careful what you wish for

We heard all our lives

But why…

Why those wishes don’t realize the way we want them to?

Why the beautiful punchlines are missed…

Why are we elated?

To then find those unfortunate twists…?

What would it cost the universe

To do it right once

To custom design it the way we wanted

To say here you go

Your wish is fully granted !

What would it cost…

Perhaps the loss of scared people

Desperately sticking to faith…

Trying hard,

But bitter and full of hate

Praying and making wishes

And getting shocked every time

…because wishing for that perfect outcome

Was really their crime!

I wanted to present this case

Wanted to ask why

Why this shred of happiness which actually ends up in a desperate cry….

So I did

And someone within me spoke up

Saying look at each of your wishes

And look what you have got

Your wishes were granted almost word to word!

So why do you feel that you were not heard…?

Idea is to enlighten you!

Not through pain, but through unusual event or two

Idea is not only to reach immediate, fun outcome

Idea is to make you wiser, a much better person

Idea is for you to find eventual happiness

Instead of pushing you into complete madness

….you may not realize, but we actually cleared the way

Just so you can experience this amazing day!

You are infatuated with small scenes

Not knowing the eventual dangers

You don’t know the dark allies

Or the lurking strangers

We do!

We do

And so we always craft the outcome

That is only best for you

NATASHA KAZIM

3^rd June, 2015

Bad Muslim

Do not project your fear

onto my body

 

I will not hold your hand

and reassure you

I have no intention of killing you

I will not coddle your

fear or accept guilt

by association

I have no interest in

reassuring you

not all of us are like that

 

I will not apologize

for your parochialism

your provincialism

or your ignorance

for your inability to

perceive

violence unless

a tv box or a hashtag

numbs your mind with it
I will not mourn with you

because you don’t even

know

how to acknowledge

my many deaths

I will not affirm

that your grief

and your loss

is more painful

or more significant

or more terrifying

than the grievances you

have never even heard of

than the grievances you refuse

to recognize as grievances

 

I will tell you instead

what it feels like

to watch your

Pundits and your Experts

extoll the virtues of

Killing All Muslims

of deporting everyone on

security lists with names

like mine

I will tell you

how much terror

your vaunted fear

births

how it pierces my skin

coils around my cranium

burrows under my parietal

bones makes it difficult

to breathe

to think

to wake up

in the morning

how it grows inside me

this infinite terror

because you think

your fear is

so special

so singular

so unique

it justifies the

rivers of blood

in places

you still don’t know

how to find on a map

 

I will not apologize

until every single european

apologizes for the massacres

holocausts genocides famines

committed in your names

until you personally apologize

for palestine kashmir algeria the

congo

for drawing lines

in the sand

that still fester

like bloody wounds

will refuse to apologize

until every single american

personally apologizes for discovering

this continent

by washing it in the

blood

of it’s original inhabitants

for slavery the kkk

plantations japanese internment

camps the trail of tears

for the burnings

hangings lynchings

of Black bodies

for policemen

who still don’t know

innocence and Blackness

can exist

in the same body

for rectal feedings and

unaccountable disappearances

abu ghraib and fallujah

for torture that still doesn’t

count

as torture for terror that rises and

rises and rises

infinitely

Click link below for full poem

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/12/bad-muslim/

Posted by F. Sheikh

By Stephanie Barbé Hammer

Poem

For Alan Dann

A woman came up to me in grad school and said she wished she was as smart as I was and I told her where to find the good theory books at the library and she said “what do you think I am — stupid or something?” and threw down her copy of Derrida’s On Grammatology and stomped off.

A woman came up to me in Bloomingdales and said she liked my glasses and I told her where to get them and she said, “what do you think I am — a millionaire?” and stomped off.

A woman came up to me in the hospital and said “this is your baby,” and I took the baby, but she said, “I can tell already you’re a terrible mother,” and threw the baby blankets at my husband and stomped off.

A woman came up to me at the swimming pool and wanted to know why my 2 year old daughter was laughing at her classmate, and I explained that she had never seen a penis before, and the woman said “DON’T USE THAT FOUL WORD IN MY PRESENCE,” threw a beach ball at my head, and stomped off.
A woman came up to me at my house and said she wondered what all these little girls were doing, drawing with chalk on the driveway, and I said they were friends of my daughter and she said “YOUR CHILDREN ARE OUT OF CONTROL,” and the girls started laughing, and they all took giant steps behind her as she stomped off.
A woman came up to me at the university and said she wondered why everyone was so mean to each other on campus, and I said “what do I look like – a therapist?”, and she said “actually, yes, you do,” and stomped off.
A woman came up to me at a shopping mall entrance, and gave me a Kleenex because I was crying into the telephone fighting with my husband, and I said “thank you” and she said “don’t mention it. I know how you feel; you just wish you could stomp off.”
A woman came up to me at the Northampton bus station, and she said she knew me from somewhere, and I said “I am your mother,” and she said “I know — I’m just kidding and being weird!” and then she laughed and pretended to stomp off.

Link to article

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/sbhammer/2015/01/woman-to-woman/#more-120373

A Poem by Natasha

LONELINESS

 

Loneliness complained
I turned a deaf ear
Loneliness tried to explain
But I know the fears…

 

Loneliness looked into my eyes Quietly
I turned away…
I know the sadness
But what could I possibly say?

 

I too have walked on that barren land
I have heard those echoes
I have seen the darkness
Have longed for a shadow

 

I have suffered through those lonely nights
I have lived those gloomy days
I have faced those empty moments… …
I am still in that maddening maze!

 

Screams fill the air
None can be heard
Something dies each second
But not a single leaf is stirred

 

I know how it is I know the hurt is true

You try to get up and breathe,

but breaths are rare and few..

 

…knowing all, I then offered myself

So quietly we started to walk

On the secluded path, so hazy and cold

We walked together

With no one to hold

 

Natasha