I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson
is to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted
into energy, so our anger controlled can be transmitted into
a power that can move the world.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi

I. Islam: submission

Girls who break rules
are ruled by a hand, by a fist, by a knife;
replace their throats with embers,
send the smoke up to Heaven
and hope Allah hears them. I see
one young woman in a wheelchair chariot
with suicide written all over her legs in crinkled black
and red canyon lines:
twigs for legs, burned flesh forest,
this is how young women put themselves on altars
hoping for absolution
while trying to start a forest fire that
curls it smoke fingers into noses around the world.
Can we not smell the burning?

For those who have lost hope,
seeking solace in the end of life;
for those whose hearts are broken and in desolation;
we pray to the Lord.
Lord, hear our prayer.
Continue reading →