Wrapped up in flags

Today out of my brother's apartment window overlooking LA's Federal Building was another loud protest of horns and cheers. In their green t-shirts and dirty looks walked dozens of Iranians who look at me as if they know whose side I am on. Today was like all the other days since the election except for one thing...I looked up at the sky and saw an unfortunate thing. A plane flew in circles with a large green white and red flag with black font spelling "IRAN". Attached to the flag was the name "Cameron Yadadi".
I can't help but pause and ask myself, "but why?". With all the mayhem and misfortune occurring in Iran, with students protesting for fundamental rights, and with a government increasing international tensions, why must this guy use this chaos as an opportunity to advertise his name? Furthermore, why are Iranian-American youth who have stopped reading newspapers and books using these protests as an opportunity to rebel? If people truly respected what is going on in Iran right now and didn't want this to be just another set of deaths and injustices occurring in vain, I believe they should spend more time gaining knowledge than cheering at street corners in front of irrelevant buildings.

I'm just saying.

Turtles win the race again

I recently received an e-mail from a friend and it really made me stop in my tracks. It was a series of pictures of a bird trying to save it's spouse who was hit by a car. At the end, you see this bird mourning besides the dead one helpless. I then remembered the story about the hippo that was orphaned after a tsunami and a 100 year old tortuous adopted the orphan. I stopped and pondered, why is it that different animal species can watch out for one another while humans who are supposedly better in terms of morality can't treat people of different tribes, races, creeds and even genders with higher levels of decency.


So here I write...

And we say that we have evolved from animals but look at the differences in our nature and theirs. When a female dog lets baby tigers suckle her milk, when a donkey and a horse create a family, when a century old tortious protects an orphaned hippo, when these species coexist in harmony, we must ask ourselves, do we really think we are better than them?

We batter baby seals for clothing, rob elephants of their tusks for jewelry, skin tigers going extinct and bulldoze their shelters for parking lots, then we wonder why we can't all just get along.

Speaking out with spoken word

After years of telling myself to perform some of my pieces at an open mic...I finally did it! This was at NYU's Shuruq Arts Festival.

The first of many...perhaps

Baby Roya is here to guide me in figuring out what type of blog baby I'm having. Roya #1 says it should be one the upsets and confuses people. #2 wants a satirical blog but I think #4 is already bored at the thought of reading another blog. #8 is quite fascinated while #9 is getting ready to L-O-L. In the meantime, I suppose I'll stick to what I know best...poetry. I think this upsets Roya #10.

The first leaf only falls once

Ever since
we walked across the endless field
emerald needles tickling my toe

I stopped
inside maple tree shade
to watch the dying grass grow

I whispered
“The first falling leaf…”
but you were past gone

Gliding
my eyes sway with the leaf
dancing in the wind’s song

Wishing
you heard the grass hug
the leaf in a cautious embrace

Knowing
ever since the day you left
I lost the memory of your face