ملا تو پھر نہ رہے گا جوازِ شکوہ گری
جو مانگنا ہو تو یہ حوصلہ ضروری ہے

If you get it, you will have no justification of complaint
When asking for something, this fortitude must be ascertained

Couplet and translation ©️Arshia

theres no grief like another day
with each foot
sunken into the sand-hills of contradictory continents

straddling this divide of time and language
the ocean has been colored red
from our aching hearts
since they hammered these border walls up

i’m crying at my computer waiting for my best friend to answer
i’m crying while i write this letter to my dying grandmother,
under her covers
an ocean away

i’m hoping for a call to me
a distinct answer to which
side of the shore i belong

each time i look at my reflection half of me is gone

pieces

strewn across unforgiving terrain
the stretch of an abyss
only as far as the stitches on my left hand

the six hour time divide, waiting for my sister's awakening
to tell her a dream of us holding hands,
which i won’t recall by
her morning

what is the divide anyway?
except an inherent part of my heart

i carry the world within me-
spilling rivers
crushing waves,
but it still feels so far apart

je ne suis pas là
I'm nowhere
il y a des cordes à chaque extrémité de moi
I suppose I'll feel this forever now
parce que je ne vais jamais couper les cordes
no matter where I am, I will always be far from the other.

heavy head
raise the lever
open eyes receive
light transmissions
signal time and space

je me reveille dans une chambre
qui ne me connait pas

j'attendais la vie me lève
mais il n'a jamais fait

Hola mi amiga
Let's talk 'bout what we had
The strongest bonds of friendship
Un fuerte amistad

Nothing came between us
No podían separarnos
We shared all our sueños
And hoped to alcanzarlos

Pero esa noche, it all changed
When once our lips did meet
Your touch became tan dulce
Tus palabras just as sweet

El amor exploded in our lives
Mi vida became yours
Y nuestra friendship grew still deeper
Con pasión y so much more

Y quién sabe qué hubiera pasado
Si we didn't break each other's hearts
Pero si pudiera salvar la amistad
I'd nix us 'fore the start

Désolé, mon charmant ami,
but the future belongs to me.

Désolé, mon cher ami,
but today belongs to me.

Minority

They call me dumb because i am from a nation of a different tongue
They say we are wetbacks, immigrants, and even *******
They call me
unimportant because i am still a "teenager"
They say "your just a kid you'll never make a change"
They call me a stupid female
because i believe in my worth as a
female

But here is where they were wrong,
I am not dumb, i am intelligent and bilingual
I am not just a kid, i am the future of this cruel cruel world
I am not stupid, i am a strong willed determined female

So to the people Who try to bring me down because I am a Young Hispanic Woman, I have one thing to say to you
you
were
WRONG.