Terrorist – by Mahnaz Badihian
Terrorist
( This poem was born after reading a captured suicide bomber’s interview )
You have changed the smell of our land
The color of our flowers
You changed my name
My new name is terrorist
A name that does not buy me
A loaf of bread
And will never help me dream of
Your green land
I am a terrorist whose scream has become
A gun in the throat of his hands
You call me terrorizing
Because of terrorizing nightmares
In the night of struggle for
A piece of bread
My wandering child
In a dream for home
Runs to the length of dreams
And sleeps behind your bars
In the ashes of his dreams
I am the one who cried for
Broken wings of butterfly
Yesterday
I am a terrorist
That the tears of moon light
Put out the flames of my heart
And the wounds in my heart
Have blocked my lungs
From breathing freedom
And I am so dead
That death is my only
Means of staying alive
M.Badihian 2006