Tamam Kahn
I’m Telling You
my granddaughters are not held in cages with blankets of foil.
They eat mac and cheese, sip lemonade on the porch
above the garden. Their mother brings sweaters and warm pie.
It’s a kind of salvation for me that they are ok.
The girls are not hearing explosions, breathing bomb-dust,
not told to blow themselves up in God’s name.
They are not on a raft at sea.
I’m not at sea. My bed is not a raft.
My bed with fluffy pillows is in a mountain room
with a front door by the driveway.
My belt is not strapped with explosives.
My belt holds
eyeglasses,
a pouch with lip gloss, a pen and some cash.
It has two zippers.
I’m telling you the details because I can.
My feet are without dirt and wounds and bruises, nor numb
with cold from the water splashing them.
My darlings do not have to endure
scraps for shoes. They are not pulled away
from their mother and shipped somewhere
behind a wire fence—just held there
until they begin to forget
their mother’s voice, and who they were before.
I’m Telling You
my granddaughters are not held in cages with blankets of foil.
They eat mac and cheese, sip lemonade on the porch
above the garden. Their mother brings sweaters and warm pie.
It’s a kind of salvation for me that they are ok.
The girls are not hearing explosions, breathing bomb-dust,
not told to blow themselves up in God’s name.
They are not on a raft at sea.
I’m not at sea. My bed is not a raft.
My bed with fluffy pillows is in a mountain room
with a front door by the driveway.
My belt is not strapped with explosives.
My belt holds
eyeglasses,
a pouch with lip gloss, a pen and some cash.
It has two zippers.
I’m telling you the details because I can.
My feet are without dirt and wounds and bruises, nor numb
with cold from the water splashing them.
My darlings do not have to endure
scraps for shoes. They are not pulled away
from their mother and shipped somewhere
behind a wire fence—just held there
until they begin to forget
their mother’s voice, and who they were before.
Tamam Kahn is the author of 2 poetry books on the women of early Islam. Untold, A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad won an International Book Award in 2010. She has traveled to sacred sites in Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Andalusia, and India, and spent two decades researching early Islamic history. She was invited by the Royal Ministry of Morocco to read her poetry and attended a world-wide Sufi conference in Marrakesh.