January 27, 2023 - “Life is a Crime” by Rahil Najafabadi

LIFE IS A CRIME

On the eve of death, a night winged lullaby
comes to us who are awake, to say goodbye.
There are many of us on the streets­­––we crawl
together. We become the shadows of the crows,
our white brides that come to mourn the crowd
of girls who never wore that holy gown.
The legend starts counting the days of a dictator
once the white crow takes the place of the dark.
They owe us thousands of healthy women,
hundreds of heads they are holding like wooden
souvenirs, decors of their death halls.
I came to this land to die for my people, I fall
for the same lie of patriotism every time.
But this is more than a desert and a shrine,
I deserve the whole Persian Gulf for my bridal shower.
I need the equator to open and suck in these killers.
Life after bedtime is a war disguised as a game,
they took our big, beautiful eyes, they erased our names.
My name is your name. Our names are secrets,
Messages that can’t be unsent, like steps
that cannot be taken backwards to the past––
To the time where life is a crime after
we wake up from the fog of living in a nightmare.