Sisters
By Kate Rogers
– After Marta Ziemelis
My friend, in Canada 12 years,
a citizen now, fled Iran
to let her shining dark curls, fragrant
with coconut oil, flow free
of the restraining cowl
imposed by men unwilling
to incarcerate their own desire.
Her locks tumbling loose
over her shoulders, she chose exile,
yearning to love whomever she wants.
Mahsa Amini, red-lipped,
only a few strands straying
from under her hijab,
skull fractured like an eggshell
by the morality police, blood seeping
from her ears, those velvet doves—
will never be older than 22.
Armita Geravand, her tresses flying
streamers in the subway wind,
a train, Martyr’s Square Metro station, Tehran,
was shoved to the floor out of range
of the security camera. At age 16—
too beautiful and confident to be allowed
to escape beating. A brain-dead coma.
At a poetry reading, my friend introduces
her sister here on a Visitor’s Visa. For now.
She huddles into a heavy winter coat, her uncovered
hair lush as the plumage of the Hoopoe, that bird-guide
from Attar’s poem* who showed the way
to all the avian pilgrims, eager to meet God,
wings unclipped.
* “The Conference of the Birds”
Kate Rogers’ latest poetry collection is The Meaning of Leaving. She won first place in the subTerrain magazine 2023 Lush Triumphant Contest for her suite of poems, “My Mother’s House.” Kate’s poetry also recently appeared in Where Else? An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology. She has been published in such notable journals as World Literature Today; Cha: An Asian Literary Journal and The Windsor Review. She is a co-director of Art Bar, Toronto’s oldest poetry reading series.
Image credit: Sandra Strait via a Creative Commons license.
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