For the Girls & Women of Iran
“Beloved Žina,
you will not die.
Your name became a symbol.”
ژینا گیان تۆ نامری. ناوت ئەبێتە ڕەمز
A storied land of ancience, torn
‘tween empire west ‘n empire east…
Alone stands She, in black subdued,
on placed-defiant feet.
Hid ‘way (Her heroism waits!)
is lionessid-She, curtailed
in all Her body’s boundless ways;
Her latent bloom of blood it hates;
Her symbolism jailed.
Pathetic patriarchal dread;
politic-priests scared of Her head!
The land-bound sea of th’Caspi folk –
Mazandaran; The Giant’s Gate –
gleams northward of Ērān for She;
for Her uprising fate.
The sun-disk climbs. it, roach-like, runs –
that mass of meagre, wretched men
that wants to see Her quelled; Her fire
that sears their gross, lech’rous desire
‘n takes the world from them!
it… it is sniv’ling, panicked by
th’people reflected in Her eye!
Scurrying – snake-bellied; alone –
it sees about Her risen arms
that bear black-marker symbols, writ
for those that it has harmed!
For those it thought it could contain!
Hideously weak, it abhors
these Girls ‘n Women breaking free
in fierce, defiant rhapsody
to change Her story’s course!
Fārsi curves cursive, flowing long;
She grasps the blackness She has on…
Clear-colour, k’leidoscopic, bursts
courageously; eruptive; high!
it flees in measly terror-squeals!
Her headscarf in the sky,
She sings ‘n dances; smiles ‘n loves!
The wind, within Her hair again,
caresses; plays; triumphant, lifts!
Burnt by Her flame, it squirms – how swift
the vile, revolting men
are shown for th’nothing that they are!
True men ‘n boys uplift Her star!
Stealthy no more: topple the tow’r!
Humiliated phallus-ruin…
its farce of Right To Rule in ash;
your hate is your undoing!
your rape of Women’s born-to rights;
your destruction of growing Girls –
all are against you, veiled or not!
your rank, misogynistic rot
‘s’t’be excised from this world!
This lesson, now, let t’you be taught:
a Girl is Something; you are nought.
Women. Life. Freedom.
Image credit – Rex/Shutterstock
william altoft 