If I'm sick please be my remedy
If it's music please be my harmony
And baby please if you see my on the street
Don't smile near me
Because I'll fall in love again

I breathe you in
Like a puff of stale
Cigarette smoke

You fill my lungs
With confusion
And a hint of
Regret

Because part of me wishes
I would never have
Met you

But part of you lingers,
Like the smell of cigarettes
On a chain smoker,
Stained all over my body

-e.w.

like *******'s paint splattering on canvas
like Warhol's Campbell soup in print
like Cunningham's democracy on stage

she loves him like that; she loves him like Art

One glance to the side and she crawled into an uncomfortable ball
Holding her breathe
Slowly letting the walls hug tightly
She froze in silence
No oxygen
No windows
Just the sound of her own heartbeat

Her face puzzled
Deciding weather to laugh or cry
She didn't let fear choke her by the neck
Fore that would have been the end of it

This thing stared deep into her eyes
Strangling her so called innocence
Every smile
Every laugh
Every warm moment danced away as if it were their will to do so
This was no laughable matter

This thing took in the good and released evil
All hell broke lose upon those who dared to cross paths

It became clear to her that this creature
That held the world between its lips
Wasn't just any kind of entity
It was a beast
The kind of beast that would rip your heart right out of your chest
The kind of beast that fed on fear and laughed at your tears
A beast that couldn't enjoy a spark of light
So it couldn't let anything jubilant
Take control of its home

This beast had invaded her home
Which is no longer sweet
Would it be wrong to blame it all on the beast
Or herself for letting it eat her purity away
Leering at the mirror with terror written all over
She accepted the beast

the night I was going to die
I was sweating on the bed
and I could hear the crickets
and there was a cat fight outside
and I could feel my soul dropping down through the
mattress
and just before it hit the floor I jumped up
I was almost too weak to walk
but I walked around and turned on all the lights
and then I went back to bed
and dropped it down again and
I was up
turning on all the lights
I had a 7-year-old daughter
and I felt sure she wouldn't want me dead
otherwise it wouldn't have
mattered
but all that night
nobody phoned
nobody came by with a beer
my girlfriend didn't phone
all I could hear were the crickets and it was
hot
and I kept working at it
getting up and down
until the first of the sun came through the window
through the bushes
and then I got on the bed
and the soul stayed
inside at last and
I slept.
now people come by
beating on the doors and windows
the phone rings
the phone rings again and again
I get great letters in the mail
hate letters and love letters.
everything is the same again.

Centuries far ago
In the African state of Congo
Trespassed by the heartless whites
Civilizing the blacks, against their rights

They invaded them under a false pretence
They shattered humanism’s true essence
Several men decayed, as malnourished
For being skinned in charcoal colour they were punished

The invaders sowed the seeds to racism
It grew larger using euphemism
It all spread like a malicious talk
Darkness bowed when the white flesh would walk

Subjugated with iron chains the slaves marched
With empty stomachs and throats parched
Killed unmercifully if they refused a task
After all, the devil resided behind the white mask
They looted several nations
Leaving behind schools and railway stations
But who would benefit from development of this kind?
In the darkness, hearts had turned blind

Oh, one day back then it all changed
Hearts pumped louder through the ribs that were caged
Unleashing those iron chains they chased;
Till those heartless masters felt disgraced

The dark cloak of slavery burnt to dust
While freedom of sunshine sparkled on all the rust
Each enslaved human fought for what is right
No one could dare to break their might

Blood was shed on both sides
But they didn’t cease their stride
Back then they made them flee
But those racist seeds flew across seas

The darkness never prevails
From one land to another it sails
Only the goodness in one’s soul,
Can take the darkness for a toll!


-Zainab Attari

I still knock even though I know the place is empty
So I walked in and saw the emptiness
I listened to emptiness
Reminisce
"Till the sand is on the other side."

                                                         ­   "One last time."

I collect all the memories we scattered around the room
I hear every sweet words of forever in the room
I feel the love we had

"When this ends..."
                    
                                             "Letting go would be easier."

To let go,
Or to be let go
Which hurts more?
Who had the stronger heart?
Who  had the bigger ego?
Who loved more?

"It's not bad...to be alone."
                                            
                                                   "I can still hold it in."

My eyes are wet
I could remember everything
Your screams
The sound of me when I cry
The sound of me letting go.


                                                     Time's up.

**"But..."
                              
               ­                                                                 ­              "I still love you."