Violence

Twenty six souls were gunned down

Many have been damaged for years to come

Politicians in mourn framing the question

“How can I use it to my advantage?”

Activists of “NO GUN” recalibrating their attack

“Gun massacred twenty six”

Pay attention my fellow countrymen!

Streets are ill

Schools are ill

Homes are ill

Cities and towns have fallen to plague

And no one wants to know

No one wants to hear

We close our eyes

We seal our ears

We shut down our senses

To pretend all is well

We always walk on circle

We worship violence and destruction and
Yet we deny it

Under my skin

Under your skin

Dusk has nested

With its crickets’ songs

Under my skin

Night has nested

With its life eating silence

On your shoulder

A nightingale has nested

Singing the birth of the day

On my shoulder

A coffin resides

With its ancient memories

Normalcy

On my way to work, a man

And his Shih Tzu

are the characters of the street

Man and his dog provide normalcy

To my working mornings

And perhaps to others’

Neither they know me, nor

I know them, yet when

They are absent from their

Morning walk, I feel unease

At the cross-section of Dunn Elementary

A school guard in her orange jacket

On school day is the character

Of the cross-section

When she is absent, I feel unease

Monday through Friday, when I

Step in NanoFab building where

I work, Joe the custodian

Is attending to the needs

of the building, as expected

to provide normalcy to life with

just being there

I say “Good Morning Joe’ and

He replies “Good Morning Sir,

It is a good day” and smiles

Man and his Shih Tzu, school crossing guard, and

Joe the custodian are

The plugs in the holes of life

As you and I are to others

Reunion

One day, you and I will meet
unexpectedly or by design
At a café or perhaps a hotel
I will be at the gate, framing the sky
you, carry a lantern to break
the silence of dark
I will turn my body, not my head
with burried shyness in face
You will approach, as time expands
and steps slow
in the breez of happiness and discomfort

Facebook

Teenage prostitutes of Facebook
A new generation of faked IDs
A flock of sexually active thirteen year olds
Without self esteem and Immigrants of broken homes
 Are fruits of zero conscience era
 In my town, women are barren
And men pregnant of debt
 My town has no gate and yet, closed

Unknown Times

One day we wake up to realize
Life became closed cycle
Repeat of habits and habit of repeats
No motive, no destination
A merry-go-around of dullness
* * * * * * * * * *
Men drink from TV and Tablets
To celebrate social events
Birth of the nation or super bowl
And occasionally look into horizon
Feeling a vague and distant memory
Of something from unknown times
* * * * * * * * * *
Streets become array of concrete
Vacant and distant when a
Thirteen year old girl becomes
Sexually active, despite all teaching of virtue
* * * * * * * * * *
Facebook, a union of virtue and vice
Becomes the meeting place of
A generation whose language is
Beyond comprehension of God and Evil
To meet and satisfy its lust

Legacy of War

I was a complete man when
Stepped in recruiting office to
Serve my country, NOT KNOWING
You trained me to search, kill and
Sometimes build cemetery and school
You flew me to Iraq, I searched
And I killed to stay alive
When I was blown up in my Humvee
You brought me back home, NOT KNOWING
I left behind a part of me
Buried in sand and dust and
I brought in me, sand and dust, NOT KNOWING
I suffered nightmares and flashbacks of
My comrades, explosions, and snipers and Green Zone
Not knowing what to call my sickness
I lost part of me in sand and dust
I carried in me sand and dust

My Universe

I live in a circle with no pie
And diameter of one span
No further than the tip of my nose
This is my universe
Full of sacred words
I love oppressed nations,
At least this is what I am told
Although I always conform with oppressors
I hate dictators and despots
And again, my taxes go to them
And I never ask “why?”
May be the radius of the question
Extends beyond my circle of sight
I saw a woman in short skirt
Planting political placards on her lawn
My neighbor waved at me praising
Democracy and Freedom
Our WORLDS differ, I ponder
Beyond the tips of our noses
A vast space of nothingness lives