RIP Deah Barakat.  RIP Yusor Abu-Salha.  RIP Razan Abu-Salha.
the three muslim victims  of chapel hill shooting







because **Muslim lives also matters

we opened its stiff windows
and the room above the kitchen
could breathe again.
hot and stuffy like a car
with its doors sealed tight
in the middle of July,
the summer air
rushed into its lungs
as if it had just taken
a first breath from an inhaler.
meaningless,
useless,
simply a "spare"
used only for things to be seen
once or twice a year;
soon to be a room full of strangers
only to be seen
once or twice a year.

remember when you laid me back and told me you needed to kiss every inch of my body, you needed to feel the skin that begged for you under your lips, no matter what words I string together everything about that night sounds like sinful lust when in all reality your lips kissed every bruise, cut, and bad memory away in the most innocent way possible and when you turned me over and ran your fingers down my spine before placing chapped lips of heaven on my shoulders releasing every pounding rhythmic weighing stress that knotted in my bones I knew at that moment I would spend forever in the miserable regret that being eerie to commitment would leave because no matter how much we loved, screamed and craved each other, the time could never be more wrong and I hope that one day my lips can kiss every broken freckle on your skin again.

The bitter cold
nips at my neck
but I linger outside
if only to get a whiff of
the smoky smell
of firewood burning
that makes me nostaglic
for winter days.

the poems
I inspire
are much better than
the poems
I write
Thank goodness

My heart squeezed tight when I got the call
I'd not prepared myself at all
The journey seemed so painfully slow
Allowing fear to gradually grow
Greeted by that clinic smell
A silent bell began to knell
My shock I could not keep inside
At how you'd changed, oh how I cried
You looked so gaunt, so pale, so thin
It angered me that it should win
The cancer that you'd fought so hard
About to have the final word
Yet still you smiled, your eyes awake
The sparkle that it could not take
You held my hand and in my ear
A whisper, glad that I was here
Never will I forget your face
Changed, another in your place
Never can I forget that day
Your face so drawn, your skin so grey
I hope, I yearn, I wish, I pray
The memory will fade away
And every time I think of you
The happier times come breaking through

Taken from the book Breakfast Bites, and published in the Anthology "A Day in Time"

Bone dry and still, ice cold and grey
We lay as they embalm us, wash us and clothe us in white satin
Prepare us for sleep
Deep, dark sleep in a place where no man can wake us

Our loved ones lament our departure
The pangs of grief grip them relentlessly
It seems their pain not only rises from the reality of their loss
But they fear that we know the pain of death even in death
No, it has never been more far fetched
We have fallen asleep, no form of consciousness stirs within us now
When the last breath left all knowledge slipped away
No part of us lingers here to see their mournful faces
Or hear their miserable wailing
We do not know their suffering and cannot quell it in any way
As surely as the living live, they know that they must die someday
But here in death, we know nothing
We only lie in wait now beyond their reach
Even when the earth consumes us
Strips away all we once consisted of and the only remnant is our bones
We sleep in peace, completely unaware

Even so, a day will come when a voice will call our names
And we will hear it and rise from the depths and see light
A new life we will know and live to never sleep again

SOLD TO THE DEVIL
Life to human perception it’s logic,
I see Life as a gift, life is precious,
Preset death for life to end is evil,
Who has a right over life?
Only he who gave life is trope,
Human, Nature, Love and Command
God made it that way,

Money, fame and celebrity for
Misery and vulnerability, life is no more,
Unintelligibly death barely noticed,
Why willing the riches of the witches,
This world is no more,
You sold your soul to the devil,
Questioning all the suffering your life
For unnecessary fortune to spend on your
Last quartern

What kind of a covenant signed through blood
And blood sharing of the innocent?
Is it the work of a devil or the word?
Only the blood of Christ for the covenant,
You sold your soul to the devil,

God cast the demon on earth for he knew
The power vested in us, with grace
We are blessed to defeat this demon
A noble purpose inspires sacrifice,
Stimulates innovation and advocate perseverance
We are blessed we are blessed