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The Flag You Want Me to Wave, by Tara Elmiyeh

Writer's picture: Bottom of the HeartBottom of the Heart

Follow Tara on Instagram @the_.cosyreader


Dear - someone,


I do as you say

I wave the green, white, and red flag

From that land far away

The one of the lion and sun-

Oh sun- when will you rise today?


For I speak the mother tongue

With words fleeting, fluttering, flaming off and young

Ones formed of studies I was never allowed to miss

So I could be your poet filled with bliss


But when my lips parted to speak

It all felt wrong, a hill so steep

The “گ” ,“ق” and, “ک ” become muddled in my speech

And so no one listens to one who cannot speak


Yet you had me trudge on nonetheless

Alas speaking those sounds with some progress

To say words that would make you proud

To finally be loud


Even then I did not know

That there was so little to show


For words stumbled from my mouth

As a rocket’s sputtering jitters going south

Thoughts fumbling, then falling

With your laughter my confidence was lagging


Then sitting and trying to read

Pressure to measure to hunger I cannot feed

A volcano spouting dream from dream

All of which were somehow meant to make me beam


So I listen to the music for you

Trying to read before I turn blue

Losing my accent as best I could do

Yet it still sticks to me like glue


All the same it will not let go

You stand against me parting this river’s flow

But it has given up on me

So why can I not let it be?


You expect me to wave your country’s flag with pride

To speak the tongue fluently and throw reservations aside

Yet I am mocked when I try

My motivation is Zayandeh rood river: dry


On my own, there are still times

Where poems flow as sweet melodies through the sky

When I look to the lion and sun-

Which can now rise


In a future where that flag

Is mine





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