A poem by Irtefa Binte-Farid
Every morning my daughter
Wakes up and asks
“Will it be hot today?”
My spring child, born at the turn of
Of the seasons, who counts the
Evergreens in the winter,
Drawing warmth from their green boughs —
And every time I answer “yes”
I see the joy in her eyes
At the promise
Of sunshine.
As we see the seasons
Slowly turn
And rejoice as bare branches
Flower gorgeous
Fairytale blossoms —
As we begin to clean out
The garden beds and
Plan what to plant where —
I can’t help but
Think of —
I can’t help but think of
Ryan Gainer
Toiling in his garden.
Maybe the cool earth in his hands
Helped quiet his mind.
Maybe his parents
Enjoyed watching their child
Find pleasure in soil and sun
Until the gardening tool In his hands
Cost him his life
And I can’t help but
Think of
Eric Garner
Tilling the earth
In the spring sunshine
So he could plant
The trees
That will one day
Help us all
Breathe
And I can’t help but think of
The little Palestinian boy —
Who having lost everything —
Still plants a sapling
Outside his tent
And tends it with water
He stood hours in line to collect
Because it will make his world
A more beautiful,
A more bearable place
When it blossoms
And I can’t help but
Think of the Prophet (peace upon him)
Who taught us
The subversive power of seeds —
That even when the
Final Hour comes
And the world as we know it
Is about to end —
We should STILL
Plant the seed
For a future
We will never see.
See —
THAT is why
A gardening tool is
SO dangerous —
With it,
We can uproot the systems
That deny us
Water, air, sun, and freedom
And instead
Sow the seeds
Of a new world.
So I pray
That as winter turns into spring
We find the courage
To take up the tools at our disposal
To sow the seeds of justice
In the wreckage of our
Rage and grief
So that a new world can blossom
For all the children
Raising their faces
To the sun
Seeking warmth.
Irtefa Binte-Farid is Bangladeshi-American muslimah, a toddler mom, and a recovering academic. She is passionate about the power of storytelling, especially in terms of uplifting voices that are usually sidelined or silenced. She likes reading historical fiction grounded outside the Euro-American context, and has a deep love for YA Fantasy. She deals with stress and grief by journaling, and has recently started to foray into poetry as a medium. Irtefa hopes to transform her PhD dissertation into stories accessible to the public at some point in the future. She’s on Instagram @motheringispolitical. Irtefa was a participant in last year’s writers gathering, “Writing as a Practice of Liberation,” an event organized by our senior editor and offered to our subscribers.
Feature image of journal page and illustration courtesy of the author.
Michelle | April 15, 2024
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Beautiful!!!