Thursday, May 24, 2012

A new poem by brigade member Mahnaz Badihian


Red as Poems of Jack Hirschman in SF

Tell me David* what should I write  
For this last poem before the finish line of my MFA
What should I write so you do not step on its tail?
To do surgery on its limbs or even pull its teeth
Or even give it to Dorianne** to kill it!
In that case there are not many more new subjects
I just have to repeat myself on the subject of
Love, sex, food, lovers, loneliness, exile and Recycled Woman
But I am astounded by the vast number of things we can write about
Like the thirsty flowers in our backyard that no one waters
Or about my little dogs dead mother!
See we can scream in style but we will spell the wrong words again
I may learn the art of poetry, but I have still to learn
The language of poetry that speaks of humanity

We have written so many poems in our life
But maybe not enough about hunger and people who witness
The death of their loved ones due to the lack of food, water and medicine
We have not written enough about the big thieves, the heads of governments
Let my last poem be about more urgent issues than my sexuality
Depicting the unheard voice of people in the world who die everyday
In every land by tyrants and wars

I ask myself sometimes this one big question;
What is the use of our poems if it cannot feed one hungry mouth?
What is the use if our poems are not as red as poems of Jack Hirschman in SF
And we are only trying to pull those nonsense lines from the genitalia of white pages
What is the use if we do not understand other people’s pain in this world and
Our poems only sleep between the pampered pages of North American magazines
You are so quiet and mysterious David that one cannot pass
The dark shades of your glasses to get the clear answer and see your poetic thoughts

I can climb on the vastness of each page repeatedly
 Hoping it will take me to the high tower of poetry
 But only then we can see the difficulty one may have to get close to harmony

Let’s get out of our tight, lonely houses and reach out to the poetry of the people.

* David St.John, Poet
** Dorianne Laux, Poet

Mahnaz Badihian 

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