Forbidden Thoughts Beneath Hijab

My dreams may have me arrested

Should mutaween find ways into my head

To aggressively drive my red sports car

Playing American music loudly, windows down

I should love to feel freedom’s generous wind

On my exposed face, neck and arms

I wish to berate many Saudi male hypocrites

who perverse the holy teachings and laws

I wish that God would smite them furiously

For indulging in alcohol, fornication and evilness

Pathetic brothers are guilty of that and more

Death to the vile practice of making sinless girl slaves

For who? Well-funded dirty old Arab men, of course

May  knowledge, joy, freedom and love

Be endowed by God as our daughters’ birthright

I am but a tearful dreaming female of the sand

Grateful, Thankful

Grateful, thankful hearts

venture into amazing worlds

carefully hidden in stagnant ones

Grateful, thankful souls

feel no want when they are loved

Grateful, thankful drifters

gaunt and aimless amongst plenty

needing little more than meager

scraps and kindness to create a feast

Grateful, thankful writer

is humbled by God’s blessings

and is moved by all the love in world

Happy Thanksgiving

Surprise!

Not here to berate you, really

Sure. The accident was unavoidable

No matter that it’s my only car

Of course you didn’t take my card

No need to mention that at all

You’re looking very dapper in that suit

Did you make it to the interview?

Oh, you didn’t know he was jobless?

No driver’s license or credit either, girl

I would definitely take off the ring

It came off his dead mother’s finger

Great engagement party, by the way

 

 

The Great Equalizer

Global creatures stand before me

Label them, to pass the years

Sweet Señora No Hablo Ingles

Giggling young Armenian brat

Annoyingly snotty WASP of a man

Black funky intellectual in dreads

Thin-skinned trembling ancient (about to drop)

No sympathy, bribery or angle to play

All here are lined up at the great equalizer …

The United States Post Office

 

Negotiations

Obediently medicated per MD

Using all my coping skills

Loathing is frantically bubbling

I am stable boredom incarnate!

Frida’s corrupted spine, dead baby

and Diego’s wandering member

Small framed pain and twisted life

Beautifully, grotesquely ruins me

Kahlo’s artistic corpse laughs

and refuses to engulf a pleading me

Lunacy, nonetheless, was a nice visit

 

Intersection

Senate floor words

thunderously pointless

The happy meek inherit 

bountiful toxic dust

Good faithful citizens 

live upon sinking ground

Barons boastfully cackle

until public hammer falls

Rise and fall, so human

Open eyes, see lovely tragedy

All will truly intersect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not A Good Way

Absolutely freezing

Behind the velvet rope

Bloody ankles scream

Pray hard to get in

Obscenely priced drinks

Hot guys dancing, of course

With even hotter guys

Thunderous techno music

Kills all probing questions

Not a good way at all

To find a fast husband

 

 

 

 

All Things Of Sky

Bolt of chill attacks

defenseless spines

4 PM ominous clouds

create an early night

Every creature in every station

instinctively cower

as mild rain turns to torrent

Feeling inept and afraid

It is predictably shouted

When will the grounded

master all things of sky

 

 

 

The Trouble With Defiance

Not wanting to be a pretty prop

in his sepia colored dream

Smashing all stupid lying remnants

of betrayed him and culpable her

Wanting more than a polite promise, love

Defiantly inhaling not allowed honest air

How to proceed? Assets? Less than none

Still, separation troubles are preferable

Such Wonderful Cures

So many people love you

It’s about me! Not them!

Just rise and take a shower

I might slip and die alone

Be positive about tomorrow

I could lose the fight today

You’re bringing everyone down

Then lower me down into soil

Or maybe you can just ask me

What it’s like to live this way

This episode has no fast cure

Be glad that I’m still alive

I am not responsible for others

Happy or sad is not up to me

This is harder than anything

And housed in an unarmed brain

You, me and all the shrinks

All try for what? A happy cure?

Try walking in my damn shoes

Or we can try the best treatment

Cutting and a merciful Ativan end