MALALA by Lyn Lifshin
April 5th, 2015 by admin
Excepts from MALALA by Lyn Lifshin published by Poetic Matrix Press Pakistani Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for 2014 along with Indian child advocate Kailash Satyarthi. LIKE CHILDREN TRAILING GLORY Malala, still playing with dolls, believed she could change the world, cure cancer, live on the moon, make a difference in the world. Did she imagine that some day those who believe in violence could share the same sky’s beauty, that the light of childhood could bring a glow to darkness? SO FEARLESS, CHANTING WITH OTHER SCHOOL GIRLS in the school yard the last day before school’s done along the sun drenched roads. Again and again. until next time God willing. Then helicopters and guns turn the air to dust, birds explode up from the flowers. Many crash dead. Blood and petals. A war zone of flowers. This hide and seek goes on all night. We are very afraid. This, Malala writes, is my life. ON OCTOBER 9, 2012 a Taliban gunman shot Malala Yousafzai as she rode home on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. “Which of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I’ll shoot you all.” When he found out which girl was Malala he shot her twice. Once in the head and once in the neck. IN MALALA’S SPRING DREAM the pond is a dark blossom unfolding. If she were to move to the window in the dream, there would be white lilies thru blinds, suspended instead of a moon. Fog lips on roots and willows filtering into dreams of swans. The light polishing water, connecting what was behind her to what’s ahead.Posted in: Uncategorized, Forever Journal