(This poem was written in the wake of the crackdown on the young women demonstrators in Iran who want to be free of Hejab and gender discrimination and live a life of equality, freedom and opportunities. It talks of a girl who had to leave home seeking refuge in another country)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two on either side,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
behind the concrete, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
they collide over me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first on my left hides the home I left in haste,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in despair and in hope,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
as my mother\u2019s tears washed my traces away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Behind the wall on my right, dreams are in dormant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walking the length of the desert in hasty strides,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
out of fear, hunger and hopelessness,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and then in slow motion <\/p>\n\n\n\n
as the sun burns the skin,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and the palm trees wither away,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and the oasis dries up,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and the sand storm envelops me in dust,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and hope walks away backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two steps forward will take me to the destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One step lingers in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wall on my right,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
where my dreams have travelled faster than me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
can be seen in the haze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see no door and no keys,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I see no light to show the way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
walking to the north,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
back to the south,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
back to the first stop,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
silence envelopes my hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am in no man\u2019s land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(This poem was written in the wake of the crackdown on the young women demonstrators in Iran who want to be free of Hejab and gender discrimination and live a life of equality, freedom...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}