Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Khorin al-Ghrant
31 years old
I'm a Iraqi woman who grew up in Baghdad and recently settled in Brooklyn. (I moved to Jakarta in 1991, and then to Los Angeles in 1994 -- luckily, my father is an engineer). Before I left Iraq, my poetry was published quite frequently in my school journal. Unfortunately I was born deaf -- which informs many of my poems.
This poem is about my personal experiences as an Iraqi woman in America. Although these are anti-war, I should say outright that I don't blame the US for what they have done to my country. I hate the war, but understand that it is not Americans, but their government that driving the imperial ambitions of the United States.
Dumb not stupid
Dumb not stupid
The war is on TV again. Blaring with silence.
The more I want, the less I need Longing for the false hope Of commercial dreams
Hear it scream red and yellow Blue and red. Just give me Green. All for green.
I wait for a feeling that will feed my eyes And nourish my skin. That will give me A lack of silence.
I turn it off and the silence ends. I can hear once more.
G. Walker B.
Iraq – being stabbed in the jaw Iran – won't give in to our law Arabs – prostrate on the floor.
Waking on the banks of the Euphrates, I listen, but there is no noise Not today. Not any day.
The noise will begin when the last nail is driven From the coffin of within From the wooden bin of history.
Why oh great Walker? What did we do? Wrong place? Wrong time for a hungry predator and limp prey? We can't turn back time, or can we? The Walker never rests
But must collapse. Oh he must collapse. Or it all will.
Airport Security
I assume she's saying let me feel you. But she's saying so much more.
Her fingers slow, her suspicion mounts, Human contact is what she really wants Yet there is none left inside her for anything real
No harm done, except her own Suspicion doesn't gnaw like it used to It's just a job.
My job is to submit. It's easy – if you know how It's like flying only you stand And sit and stand and sit and stand and sit
Sit and submit. Everyone else does. Why not me too?
