When I look at you,
O Husayn,
I see
Burning tears seep
Your beard, blood-steeped,
As the deep well of your soul,
In sorrow, overflows
For the ravaged earth,
Beauty and life expunged,
Lush forests, seas
Cleared and choked by debris,
Desecrated,
Decimated,
By greed
Greed
That pillages and plunders,
Rapes, exploits, and murders,
Children, mothers,
Humanity,
Nature
Greed that feeds
Spiritual disease,
Obsessive materialism,
Abuse and imperialism,
Even by means
Of Occupation, terror,
War and siege
O Husayn!
When I know you sacrificed,
Everything to revive
Man’s true spirit, divine,
How can I sit and watch idly,
As seas of blood and poverty,
From Yemen to Pakistan,
China to Afghanistan,
Devastate and drown,
Most of humanity??!
Fatema Valji | @poetryfv
