The Mirror

What tears may come soak them,
What blood may spill burn it,
You the lover of the oblique,
And the seeker of the mystique,
Drown the memories of yesterday,
It doesn't exist...
It doesn't exist...
Reality is your mirror now,
The rest simply doesn't exist...

The Prayer

The crowd stands in unison,
Shoulder to shoulder,
Like soldiers defending a fallen city,
The crowd stands in unison,
And the call of the muezzin begins...
The prayer of the twilight,
The advent of the feast of the soul,
Begins as angels shower god's love,
And the revelers bask its blinding glory,
The nameless one remains sheltered,
Cloaked in the mask of disillusion,
The nameless one remains bitter,
Sheltered in the umbrella of his deceit...

The Matam

He remains not of this world,
and yet His body walks among us,
His form raised above all in chant,
Hovering over this sea of men,
Drowning in tears, flowers and rain,
He awakens not to the sound of thunder,
He awakens not to the sound of rain...

At the Banks of the River

My existence is lost, I am merely a wanderer,
I am not of this world, nor am I of the beyond,
These eyes search endlessly for the heartbeats,
Pounding away (loudly) in the forgotten corners of this land,
My existence is lost, I am merely a wanderer,
One who searches during the day and by the starlight night,
One who searches in the searing sun, and under the silver moon,
One who searches until he has forgotten all else that mattered,
If you ask him his name, he gazes in ponder,
And he points to the silent cries in the distance...

His existence is lost, he is merely a wanderer,
He is not of this world, nor is he of the beyond,
nothing remains for him in this emptiness and hollow,
He talks of angels and demons hitherto unknown,
haunted it seems he remains like a cowardly animal,
crossing the thin mango bark over the raging river,
This wanderer roaming still,
Aimlessly like a madman,
The wanderer roaming still,
Searching for a few lost heartbeats...

Come Within

They search in the empty corridors of the heart,
These eyes gazing throught windowless souls,
These voices that echo in the halls of the shah,
These voice that echo loudly within.

Thumping loudly,
This heart searches for meaning,
In this barren land absent,
Of the intoxication of your love...

Come within me,
Come within me,
Oh lost love of my heart,
Come like the autumn wind,
Come like the prayers of the fakeer,
Come like the drops of honey,
Dripping down the lips of Layla,
Her eyes searching for her majnun,

Through windowless souls of despair,
And empty corridors of reason,
Come like the sound of the rain...

Why Trayvon Martin Had To Die

It is not often that one story seemingly arouses the collective passions of most people. I must admit that I was quite skeptical of the wall to wall coverage of the trial on CNN, MSNBC and surprisingly, even FOX NEWS. To me, it reeked of the media turning a local issue into a larger one, infusing larger issues such as race and gun control into the narrative. The coverage reached its tipping point up to this weekend when the verdict was finally announced. Police and law enforcers across Florida and all over the nation was on high alert, because the media kept insisting that this was somehow a larger pan american issue, similar to Rodney King and reminiscent of a lot of other racial issues.

It’s interesting how the coverage of the killing changed. When this issue first happened close on February 26th, 2012, I remember the conversations revolved around gun control, somehow this issue got pushed to the back-burner and now, more than a year later, race is the predominant issue. Reading some of the reactions on Twitter and other social media, I perhaps underestimated the breadth of passions that this case arose. Which got me thinking, why did this happen and what lessons can we learn from it. I realized that perhaps Trayvon Martin’s death may have important lessons to teach us.

The Law is the Law: Those passionate on both sides of this debate seemingly are so for other reasons. The fact of the matter remains, the courts have deemed George Zimmerman not guilty. A jury of our peers, selected without any prejudices, evaluated all the witnesses, the evidence, the defense, the prosecutors statements and decided that it was a legal killing. That is the law, to deride the judgement is to stain the fundamental fabric of justice in america. You have to believe that we are an imperfect nation and an inherently unjust process to not accept the results. If things turn out either way, the law took its course. End of matter.

We are all Racist: Its laughable to me when I read certain groups claiming to be above Race. Race is a factor that is bred in us, right from the moment we are born, we enter into the “race” category on our birth certificate. We write it again and again on any job application, college application and any seemingly innocent form such as a gym membership. There is nothing wrong in this, its a product of our history and also of our future. We have some benefits for minorities, we want to make sure they are identified and therefore race is a factor. The fact of the matter is, Trayvon was black, the person who shot him was not, and therefore it became a racist matter. The fact that Zimmerman is latino (or half latino) is irrelevant. Its about circumstances, yes, Zimmerman had a history. He had seen a couple of black people robbing homes in that neighborhood, yes, this created a prejudice in his mind, the next time he say a black guy peering into homes in the middle of the night, he automatically assumed the worst. It has been noted that Zimmerman had called the dispatch in the past reporting similar issues, he had never stated someone’s race. On this night, he was asked...and he identified. He pursued what he thought was the suspect, an altercation ensued and a young life was lost. What we can learn from this, is to confront our own prejudices. Why do we always assume that the worst intentions are at play. I read countless tweets asking “what if Zimmerman was black and Trayvon was black”... I reject that line of questioning. Let me ask you this, “what is both Zimmerman and Trayvon were black/or white” and the outcome was the same, would race be a factor? Would we care if two black men shoot and kill each other. There are hundreds of young men dying in South Chicago, who go nameless and are only reported in the local media. Why do we not care about them, why are their names not known, that is because we do not care. We have prejudices that we must confront. The black community needs to confront the decline of unity and the rise of crime in their neighborhoods. Lets not blame seemingly monolith justice system, or a community, but think of ourselves as a collective people, these are fellow citizens that are dying on our streets. We need to change that.

Gun control is an issue: I don't know when people decided to ignore this elephant in the room. This was a big issue and now is suddenly not. The only thing that could have prevented Trayvon from dying is not the color of his skin, is if Zimmerman didn't have a gun. They would have fought, hurt each other, the cops would have come and arrested them both, the fact that a neighborhood watch, who wanted to kill a pit-bull on the loose could patrol in the middle of the night with a gun, shoot and kill anyone who he considers a threat IS the issue. And to the NRA wing-nuts, who want guns everywhere, well what if everyone had a gun there, we would have a good ol fashion shootout. We don't live in the wild west. We live in a society of laws and an organized police. This incident was preventable and we need to ask the real question and separate passions and rhetoric from it.

Life is precious: Lets also take a step back and think about the reality of what happened. A young boy lost his life. Parents lost their child. An older man’s life is probably never going to be the same. Do you think Zimmerman can go back to living the life that he had before? Of course not. We need to put ourselves in the place of both Zimmerman and Trayvon. It could have been us. This was a misunderstanding, an altercation, a discussion that went south. It speaks to our collective nature about communities and taking them back. A man was trying to keep his neighborhood safe. A boy was just eating skittles and drink some juice. Let us not let the media and leaders divide us and realize that within us all, resides some good. Let us embrace that and use it to improve ourselves and our communities.

Fatigued Faces of Youth

I see the tired and fatigued faces of my youth,
Wander around with no discernible soul,
I hear the empty sounds of my youth,
speaking in gibberish words but no voice,
Herded around like cattle,
I see the bleeding bodies of those alive,
Wander around with no discernible soul,
Unknown faces in the unknown crowd,
Stare back in the visions of unrecognition,
I see the face of my beloved,
But he does not see me,
And I become one with the souless faces,
Wandering around...