January 25, 2023 - “In Our Tights” by Rahil Najafabadi

IN OUR TIGHTS

The night breaks easy and clean, the streets
too filthy and filled with long red shadows––
Heating my sheets again so the gunshot wounds
and the stinging pain of a forty year old revolution
feel like the sharp night that judges us, in our tights,
our scarves on our shoulders and our hair splitting
the air. These men are afraid of my hair, my skin,
but most of all he fears us all late at night, liberated,
dancing like a bunch of birdies about to die in our lace tights.