she had no words to say

woman, life, freedom: a poem

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

I was in a University of Toronto auditorium
in 2005 for a book talk by Marina Nemat
on surviving Evin prison
unimaginable torture and resolve
so I wasn’t really in Toronto
but transported to 1982 Tehran.

(I read the book in one day
–I had no words left to say…
they fell out of my mouth
and onto my lap
in all kinds of ways
I found tears in rivers
I didn’t know existed.)

She had no words to say
she had no word
no word
no words
left
to say
anyways.

I was so naive,
so naive to think
such violations
of human rights
were a thing
of the past
or that freedom
was ever even
built to last.