Poetry

Veil

2 meters long.
Solid black, soft like sheets.
We can call it a garment.
Draped like curtains over frost crusted windows.
Like the curtains, soft and subtle.
We can call it empowerment while they call it terror.
But I know
This isn’t so subtle.
It’s a glittering gold crown
Upon my head. 
Breath fast, fists clenched.
Deep breath out through the mouth.
It’s just a piece of cloth draped over
My skull. No, but it’s so much more.
We can call it submission while they call it oppression.
A truer love I’ve never known – I remind myself.
Walk out the door and remember
I fear only God.

Wanted to write something beautiful, but

She never felt like a poet of any kind.
Yet, metaphor and simile swam 
In her mind.

Heard the deception in their call
That rolled like the sea, roaring open mouths.
She never felt like a poet at all.

Is it work to sit and write all this poetry, make it a useful kind?
She’s been sleeping for a while
In her mind.

It is work, to sit and make all this poetry useful, if small
Like endless, empty blue.
She never felt like a poet at all.

Always felt so small
Drowning in that endless, empty blue.
Wrote it all down and felt for a moment, tall.
No longer drowning in doubts thrall.

Hey

I think I know you. Yeah, 
You’re that girl…
I thought I knew you.
You were so delighted by your sins.
Now you think you can wear
The hijab and we’ll all forget
We know who you really are.

Hey,
I know you
I think I do
You’re that girl…

You were always so deficient
At making the right choice.
Always finding yourself in groups
Where you didn’t quite fit.

That girl who dressed like a s***
Then went and had
A couple kids got a little
Fat. Dressed like you were
No longer waiting on the corner
To earn a hit of life.

Now you dress like you might be
Someone else entirely.
Excuse my stare, but I knew you
And now you look like someone else.

Had you all figured out
Melted you down and shoved
You into a box. Shaved off
The excess.

I thought I knew
You.
Weird girl.
Goth girl.
Easy girl.
What’s that on your head?
I thought I knew you.

I know you
That white girl
English hisses from your
Lips natively, I’m sure.
So what do you think you’re doing
Wearing the hijab?

Hey, 
I know I’ve only met you
But I had already figured you out.
I might remember your name.
Where did this piety come from?