I smile

The beautiful and brave people of Iran young and old rich and poor,
I Smile

as I feel my lonely heart parched from a sea of green I smile
I smile as I walk the mountain of apathy to create a tiny crack that I would tear open onlBy Fariba Safai


I smiley if I could only if I could with my saber of love draped in black and green, I declare myself look at me I need you and you need me too I smile

I smile at your incomprehension your fear your pity and your sympathy I smile
I smile knowing that you cannot see we are one of the same flesh and blood veins I smile
I smile when you walk with me and say that you care yet frustrated by the unknown I smile
I smile for I wish I could tell you that you will never know and we will die not knowing I smile

I smile as I think of those beautiful young blossoms that are perishing as I write in hopes of capturing their brave hearts I smile
I smile knowing they are kept in dungeons were tortured is inflicted to render the spirit dead and if that is not enough, hung like lambs from light posts dangling like majnoon by their necks
I smile through my tears for the human struggle for self-liberty and freedom from tyranny I smile
I smile for I know the color of freedom is not always red white and blue I smile.

I smile listing as the bay speaks to me in code beating against the dark gray boulders holding it back from me and me from it I smile
I smile oh how I wish I could wash away all the hurt and sorrows from sea to shining sea and dry it out on ropes made from laurel tolerant and evergreen I smile

I smile as I see words written clearly on a black board carved in red held up by an empty frame I smile
I smile as I hear the anthem of our struggles beating in my head wishing I could be there singing it with you I smile
I smile knowing those same words are sung for miles and miles across rooftops Ala O Akbar Ala O Akbar Ala O Akbar Ala O Akbar in the city of my childhood where houses were white and the smell of jasmine filled the air, now replaced by the stench of your weapons of tears I smile

I smile when you are hit by the bullets that pierce through your golden brown skin the same skin that every morning you covered with shirts made in china with American logos I smile
I smile as you fall to the ground holding my hand with your last breath you whisper
I am human
I am human
My religion is love
I am human I smile
I smile as I promise you will not die in vein I smile

I smile with the knowledge that even in death your mother can not speak your name or morn for your loss, that is the price she will have to pay I smile

I smile when I am told all the young prostitutes in Dubai are Persian I smile
I smile when I know of loved ones addicted to sheesheh wow sheesheh I smile

I smile knowing those who hide under turbans that they have dipped in blood and hatred for all that is alive, colorful, hopeful, lyrical and beautiful I smile
I smile at your agents of fear and pain as I scream
Islam means peace not war I smile

I smile of your attempt to rewrite history hundred and hundreds years past with pens that you use to stab through the hearts of mothers the same mothers that gave you birth in that pit of despair I Smile

I smile for I know this mooje of love you cannot stand in the way of for it is even bigger than you can ever comprehend or imagine I smile
I smile and scream shame on you for killing your children your mothers your father's shame on you for striking them with sticks that you sharply carved to insert suffering I smile

I smile as pain reels through my spine I smile for I know my pain is nothing in comparison with you burden
I feel pain
It feels good I smile
I smile for the generation of young whom only have the morsels left to them from your greed your ignorance and intolerance that they must bear, I smile

I smile and call you out for what you are a cheaters a liar a butchers with chains, chains that they must break with bare empty delicate virgin hands wounded and forgotten as to rip apart and bring down your Iron curtains of oppression I smile
I smile and write with fingers bound by ribbons of brotherhood of man remembering I was you 30 years past I smile
I smile for the soul that has forsaken itself I smile
I smile screaming Darius, Cyrus, Khayyam, Rumi, Hafez, Ferdosee, Farokhzad where are you to see your children are falling like butterfly's shot by the hands of their brothers I smile
I smile as their guns pluck the beautiful flowers of your Golestan Sadi, sacrificed in the name of God I smile

I smile and scream, what God who's God kills, let alone its own.
If the right to choose ones own destiny is so much to ask for then I reject your God and I still smile.

I smile for I see clearly as one can through water the day will come when the love worriers will join hands in celebration and songs will be heard from the streets were once red tulips laid and the nightingale will fly free once again. For we are the lions and the sun is behind us.