Look at What You’ve Done

I love my child but I will always love my father more.

I love my child and this is why I learn to keep her good face clean.

As you clean your face remember to move your hands toward your heart.

To put your hand upon the heart is an act of love.

To raise one hand in public is to give oneself to country.

To raise two hands in public is to make a threat.

To kneel in public at times is to evoke a failure.

If one does not know when to kneel then something has been broken.

To fall upon both knees is to provoke a greater power.

A greater power is to invoke the name of GOD and only that.

We write GOD upon our money and therefore our money is loved.

Our money brokers love and so should we too be so tender.

It is not money that is root of all evil but only to love it.

If I wish to spend my money then it is not money I have loved so much.

I purchase a dress of the beloved color and now you see I am the image of goodness.

I purchase a shroud of the beloved color and now you see I make another holy.

The color that is of purity is another’s passage and another’s passing.

The tender world bears more than what our human eye can gather.

You must always look in all directions as you cross the street.

Now see––
I would give both my hands to have her back again.

Maryam Ivette Parhizkar

Maryam Ivette Parhizkar is a poet, scholar, sometimes musician, and author of two chapbooks: Pull: a ballad (The Operating System, 2014) and As For the Future (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2016). Her recent writing has appeared in Amerarcana/Shuffle Boil, Bone Bouquet, The Recluse and other places in the small press and digital spheres. She is an editorial board member of Litmus Press and a PhD student in African American Studies and American Studies at Yale University.