December 4th, 2018

We Are One

True stories./
I am
I am Khadijah
Tortured
Raped
Black ink imbedded my arms
As mere souvenirs of the memories
That scrape my mind
A black cape
Covering me with fear/
I am Parisa.
Hidden behind my camera lens
Hidden from them
A passion stuck in a cocoon
Pondering the day it will bloom
But I am stuck here on this roof
As if I can’t capture frames
As good as him/
I am Marie
Innocent
Walking on a street in Paris
He came
His words
Dig into my chest/
STOP!/
But he slapped me
His palm marks my skin briefly
His palm marks my soul forever/
I am I am I am…/
Our stories collide
If you take off the pins
Stuck in positions on the map
Our differences subside/
Why do we hide in the dirt
If we are all roots planted in the ground
Foundations
Holding ourselves together
To finally reach the sky/

With each other, our only direction is up/
But we inhale fear
And exhale silence
As our voices are only heard
If they were fortunate enough
To catch our voices amongst their
Yelling and their screams/
We are authors with novels to share
Photographers that show us the world
Businesswomen that lead companies
Engineers that transform cities/
We hide big ideas in a small world/
Why don’t we replace I am with we are
As a mass of voices
Can be heard louder than/
Mine/
In this whirlwind of
Distasteful ideas
That mark our bodies
Our minds
We have to believe that we are
One of a kind/
We are not a minority
The majority
Of our time
Should be spent changing the world
Not treated like this/
We are more powerful if we are together
We are one.