I've really enjoyed some of the political poetry threads in the last month or so. So I'm going to share a piece I wrote a bit more than 4 years ago that was inspired in part by the events of the fall of 2001. I hope that you'll enjoy it, and feel free to use this as a political poetry open thread.
Daughter of Islam
'Islam means peace,'
they say, so
Daughter of Peace.
You look from within
your chador
eyes, wise eyes, glimmer
like pools of black gold
watch a world without peace
a world which has lost its peace
shattered by bullets
like rain,
vanished in fire
vanished in blood.
Peace is water
is a hidden pool,
a renewing spring,
a desert river
shining in an arid void,
a challenge to touch
moisture nourishes
civilization spreads
water
from the springs,
from the pools, and
from the river.
Daughter of Islam,
Daughter of Peace
with skin of gold at twilight,
hair the weight of midnight
hidden
you trudge through the
blood-red dust of afternoon
and of
War,
carrying an ewer
desolate . . .