Poem
Ali Alizadeh
Immigration
Immigration
Immigration
I’ll tell you why.To survive
the onslaught of religion.
To outlive
the ghosts of martyrs.
To recover
from the world’s longest war
since WWII. To live
beyond the hatreds
of patriotism. To see
the kinder face of humanity.
To think
free of the Faith’s manacles.
To believe
without the obligation
of forming belief.
To discover
the basic joys of being.
The price? I’ll tell you.
Evaporation.
Marginalised to the point
of disappearance.
Barred for nothing
more profound than a shade
of skin, a tone
of speech, a taste
of lifestyle. Alienated
beyond the word.
Ignored by the mighty.
Detested by the commoner.
Worth it? Doubtless.
To finally grasp
humanity’s fraudulent truth.
To dream
the sweetness of equality.
To see past
the façade of brotherhood.
To be touched
you might say, by the rays
of a luminous discovery.
To abandon
all faith, and come to cherish
the immense solitude
of non-believing.
To desire. To know
the power of desire. To wait
joyfully amid unpalatable sadness.
Recommend it?
Only to loathsome enemies
and to my dearest friends.
© 2006, Ali Alizadeh
From: Eyes in Times of War
Publisher: Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK
From: Eyes in Times of War
Publisher: Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK
Poems
Poems of Ali Alizadeh
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Immigration
I’ll tell you why.To survive
the onslaught of religion.
To outlive
the ghosts of martyrs.
To recover
from the world’s longest war
since WWII. To live
beyond the hatreds
of patriotism. To see
the kinder face of humanity.
To think
free of the Faith’s manacles.
To believe
without the obligation
of forming belief.
To discover
the basic joys of being.
The price? I’ll tell you.
Evaporation.
Marginalised to the point
of disappearance.
Barred for nothing
more profound than a shade
of skin, a tone
of speech, a taste
of lifestyle. Alienated
beyond the word.
Ignored by the mighty.
Detested by the commoner.
Worth it? Doubtless.
To finally grasp
humanity’s fraudulent truth.
To dream
the sweetness of equality.
To see past
the façade of brotherhood.
To be touched
you might say, by the rays
of a luminous discovery.
To abandon
all faith, and come to cherish
the immense solitude
of non-believing.
To desire. To know
the power of desire. To wait
joyfully amid unpalatable sadness.
Recommend it?
Only to loathsome enemies
and to my dearest friends.
From: Eyes in Times of War
Immigration
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