If I Were Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

If I were

We sat in same class
-he and I…
-classmates were many.

They had come just to pass
-another course to add
-to grades, credits…

But not us!
Neither Jesse
And nor I…

We wanted to go find.
We wanted to observe.
We wanted to handle.

He searched for his blood,
-I loved to seek and find
-where our waves intercept.

I sought for ups and downs
-the peaks and minimums
-that the waves of our kind
-meet, pass by, crisscross!

Both of us looked around
-for parents, ancestors
-and the facts stolen
-then buried under tons
-of trash, in junkyards.

"They never existed! "
-we are told and firmly
-as if a "Never Was! "

But somewhere deep in us
-in corners of our hearts
-sneak out the voices:
- "Yes, there was! "
- "Go, go, go,
-go and find."

Both of us, forced, have lived
-in some sort of exile;
-he by force of locals
-and me by the devils,
-in my home and around
-who put me within walls…

He has been removed and
-I have been shackled, tied
-to a cat-like border;
-to me sort of a jail!

He was killed in childhood
-not to be Indigenous…

I was given a name
-and flag and anthem…

In such a position
-I feel as if am leg
-of cockroach, smashed, killed …
-or a cut-worm…
-or a part of body, dismembered!

Both of us
-Jesse and I
-fell in love with Tupac
- (The Savage Andean!)

Both of us are ready
-to be tied to horses
-pulled in four directions,
-quartered and parcelled...

But proudly aware
- "We have been, "
-and
- "We were…"
- "Yes, we are! "

If I were as lucky
-would have my T.R.C.!