I Have No Power

I have no power to change you
or explain your ways
Never believe a man can change a woman
Those men are pretenders
who think
that they created woman
from one of their ribs
Woman does not emerge from a man's rib's, not ever,
it's he who emerges from her womb
like a fish rising from depths of water
and like streams that branch away from a river
It's he who circles the sun of her eyes
and imagines he is fixed in place

I have no power to tame you
or domesticate you
or mitigate your first instincts
This task is impossible
I've tested my intelligence on you
also my dumbness
Nothing worked with you, neither guidance
nor temptation
Stay primitive as you are

I have no power to break your habits
for thirty years you have been like this
for three hundred years
a storm trapping in a bottle
a body by nature sensing the scent of a man
assaults it by nature
triumphs over it by nature

Never believe what a man says about himself
that he is the one who makes the poems
and makes the children
It is the woman who writes the poems
and the man who signs his name to them
It is the woman who bears the children
and the man who signs at the maternity hospital
that he is the father

I have no power to change your nature
my books are of no use to you
and my convictions do not convince you
nor does my fatherly council do you any good
you are the queen of anarchy, of madness, of belonging
to no one
Stay that way
You are the tree of femininity that grows in the dark
needs no sun or water
you the sea princess who has loved all men
and loved no one
slept with all men… and slept with no one
you are the Bedouin woman who went with all the tribes
and returned a virgin
Stay that way.' -Nizar Kabbani

"Your little states are made of paper, and my words are matches" - Nizar Kabbani

to turn to water in someone's hands.

hijab burn (n. colloquial): dark pigmentation of the skin from the bridge of the nose to the chin caused by the sun, sparing the eyes and forehead due to the hooded effect of the hijab.  also, an episode of directions becoming difficult to hear by a DP due to lack of eyelight during a conversation.

The trouble with colorful hijabs is that bees try to pollinate you.

to disappear in a blanket of snow.

howard overman is so good i want to punch him in the face.

outsourced background aka third world solidarity camp.

you know you're privileged when you have the option not to care.

the sleeping privileged.

a wish granting nomad.

fake friends go with you to vegas.  true friends bust you out of internment camps.

An author values a compliment even when it comes from a source of doubtful competency.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography

just because someone is witty and insightful regarding their own people does not make them so regarding other peoples, particularly if they see themselves in a hierarchy of human civilizations.

mark twain was such a curmudgeon, but I would have probably hung out with him anyway.

when young, no one wants you around because you're different.  when you're old, they only want you around because you're entertaining.

think outside the mosque.

to be held without judgment.