Shirin Tabibzadeh

Nowruz is here
Once again.
I should be happy
But to tell you
The truth
I am a bit in pain.

I tend to think that
This time last year
We were more hopeful
Though I don't mean
To complain.

We obviously,
Couldn't imagine then
Such a twist and turn
In the new world order
And trend.
------
The truth is
Devils are still
At the helm,
We are still sitting
In the same
Wandering ship,
Giving ourselves
Up
to our nasty fate;
Just like
What we've done
During all these
Mundane
And pitiful
thirty some years.

Their chain
around our necks
They steer us
Here
And drag us
There:
Wherever, however,
And whenever
Their filthy hearts
Prefer.

"No problem, no objection,
Go ahead,
We are too chicken.
Getting back at you?
We simply don't dare."

What a weakling species
We are,
So shamelessly
Flat,
With no vigor,
Pride,
Or zest.
Useless,
Coward,
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
....
-Our hearts
In our pockets-
And by no means
Gallant or Valiant.

So
Everything we read
In our history books
Were just a bunch of
Lies and rubbish?

Tell you some secrets:
There were no heroes
And no wise,
I NOW realize.
Believing in them,
Was pure naïveté
And
-just between us!-
Quite foolish.

Our intellectuals
Have zero intellect,
Just parroting
What they've read
In the pamphlets of Lenin,
Mao, and Marx
Without realizing that
What is good for them
May not be good for us.

Captive of their dreams
Utopia, their Mecca
- while puffing at their hookahs-
They are still dictating
Their thoughts and
Their will.
Munching democracy
Time and again
But are still so crazy
About
Dear old Josef Stalin!

A group in cage
Of their own likes
and their own dislikes.
So absorbed by their egos
And by their very own
Unrealistic plight.

But why?
I am so bewildered
And in absolute rage....
Oh well.....

Ay me!! Did I hurt your feelings?
Dear old elites?
No worries
-I am an eternal apologist-
So sorry, YOU are right.
Who am I and why,
Should I even write!

March 2014