Leila Ired Poems

He says no with his head
but he says yes with his heart
...

Three matches lit one by one in the night
The first to see your face in its entirety
...

They say,
between black and white there is gray in choices
perhaps brown or mulatto or mestizo in people
...

Why not
eliminate the outsiders?
and get this country
back the way it used to be?
...

I like being angry.
I like the wolf rasping at my larynx
the way she snarls and snaps at the back of my throat.
I may mute and muzzle her
...

If the world were a crosswalk
two straight white lines
telling us
to live our lives
...

For my sister.

It is not for you
the cursing praise
...

I sit
and see
...

Let's find who to blame:
Ulrica scorned by Cedric,
Pandora and her thrice-cursed box.
...

The mother knits
The son wages war
...