HAJPOUR, Shervin

Baraye (“For”)

For the freedom of dancing in the streets

For the moment of fear for kissing

For my sister, your sister, our sisters

For changing the corroded brains

For the embarrassment due to empty pockets

For the yearning for a normal life

For the dreams of the dumpster diving kids

For this autocratic economy

For this polluted air

For Vali-‘asr and its withered trees

For Piruz and his imminent extinction

For the forbidden innocent dogs

For the non-stop cryings

For the dream of reminiscing this moment in history

For a laughing face

For the students, For the future

For this mandatory paradise

For the imprisoned intellects

For the Afghan children

For all these unrepeated wherefores

For all these empty promises

For the weight of the wreckage of chaffy houses

For the sensation of unwinding

For the sun after a long night

For the psychotic meds and insomnia

For men, fatherland, prosperity

For the sake of the girls wishing they were born a boy

For women, life, freedom

For freedom

For freedom

For freedom