Brother Iran
by Michael R. Burch

Brother Iran, I feel your pain.
I feel it as when the Turk fled Spain.
As the Jew fled, too, that constricting span,
I feel your pain, Brother Iran.

Brother Iran, I know you are noble!
I too fear Hiroshima and Chernobyl.
But though my heart shudders, I have a plan,
and I know you are noble, Brother Iran.

Brother Iran, I salute your Poets!
your Mathematicians!, all your great Wits!
O, come join the earth’s great Caravan.
We’ll include your Poets, Brother Iran.

Brother Iran, I love your Verse!
Come take my hand now, let’s rehearse
the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
For I love your Verse, Brother Iran.

Bother Iran, civilization’s Flower!
How high flew your towers in man’s early hours!
Let us build them yet higher, for that’s my plan,
civilization’s first flower, Brother Iran.

Published by MahMag (translated into Farsi by Mahnaz Badihian), Other Voices International, Thanal Online (India), Deviant Art, Portal Vapasin (Farsi). Keywords/Tags: Iran, Iranian, Farsi, Persia, Persian, brotherhood, culture, civilization, poetry, literature, poets, mathematicians, philosophers

To those of you who are in the know
keep your ears, eyes, and mouth closed
can't let anyone on what we know
we will cut your throat from ear to ear
that is something everyone should hear.

Play me a sad song?
But what of this joyous day
Summer unfurls before us
And warm sunshine tans my skin

Sure we toil in trenches
Dug as defensive lines
Against a swarm
So complete in its hostility

But brothers, hear the sounds of nature
Echoing around us
Wrapping us in soft cacoons
Of sweet distraction

So do not sing a sad song
Don't dampen my ephemeral mood
Let me have this moment of reprieve
As I dig trenches
On a future battlefield

antwone the gang leader always
be like: imma make a call; two
minutes and they here

regardless what the issue about:  
antwone always about dat
(and they always come for sure)

me? i ain't made for that
me just tizzop
ain't belong to antwone's
brotherhood

even if i wanted to:
they wouldn't let me

dem dudes roll heavy
while i note down outsider dreams with white ink on
black pages
you feel me?

antwone's dudes addicted to
drive-by-shootings
i'm deep inside; yet no part of that;
my handz not made for glockz

my hands are made for pens;
i'm from the ghetto; who cares?
my hands are made for pens
and if i'm broke i will
write with sparkling fingers

that is for certain therefore my death will be silver
my eyes be shiny like gold then
god is always by my side

you feel me god? good cause i feel you god (HEART)

last breath: tizzop's dead body will be floating on air
because a good man does the right thing (i want to be good)
dead brotherhoodlums be munched by icy blacktop
you feel me?
eternally doomed down there without air
i won't be there  

i am from the ghetto
who cares?  
my hands are made for pens

* WRITE TO SURVIVE

With friends through a wormhole
from the magic tree to the cave
in the sea and across the threshold

into the arms of the octopus
protecting me under sea stars
with a sign on our foreheads

We share bread and water
sing and dance over corals
of friendship in the garden

decorated with cans and glass
along paths of silver scales
and shells with wonder shine

In the garden we are safe
from the lightning storms above us
on the sea, there is no struggle here

we share, sing and dance
in the hidden Garden of Friends
on the large bed of the sea

Why is there so much distrust,
Fueling hatred, malice and lust?

We're caught up in every scam's gust
Leaving many financially bust

Including telemarketers' thrusts
Continuously feeding disgust

We're riding social media's cusp
Allowing real friendships to rust

Causing us to constantly adjust
Leaving us completely nonplussed

Making too many tasks a must
Till we nigh spontaneously combust

Perhaps leaving God's Word thus,
On the shelf gathering dust

This matter needs to be sussed
Not with haphazard zeal but robust

By a brotherhood of people we can trust
With a worldwide campaign to discuss

Preventing impending zero-sum bust
Before we're all planetary dust

I was sitting on the grass, sad,
Though I don't remember why,
this was so long ago.
I was sitting and thinking
and sobbing.

My brother came and sat next to me,
he looked worse,
he looked as if he had seen something terrible.

"Can you give me a hug, Jude?"
He asked
and I thought, with my child mind,
"I am the older brother. I have to act like a man.
I'll put aside my sadness
and comfort my little brother.

So, I hugged him.
Then I asked him
"What happened to you?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm fine"
he answered
"But you looked like you needed a hug".

That's when I knew,
no matter the age,
my brother was older than me.

Freedom brings peace, food

just appears out of the sky –


Joy of brotherhood.