Solmaz Sharif

Oct 10, 2024 | poetryfoundation.org | Solmaz Sharif

Studies suggest How may I help you officer? is the single most disarming thing to say and not What's the problem? Studies suggest it’s best the help reply My pleasure and not No problem. Studies suggest it’s best not to mention problem in front of power even to say there is none. Gloria Steinem says women lose power as they age and yet the loudest voice in my head is my mother. Studies show the mother we have in mind isn’t the mother that exists. Mine says: What the fuck are you crying for?

Mar 11, 2024 | poetryfoundation.org | Solmaz Sharif

Everywhere we went, I went in pigtails no one could see- ribbon curled by a scissor’s sharp edge, the bumping our cars undertook when hitting those strips along the interstate meant to shake us awake. Everywhere we went horses bucking their riders off, holstered pistols or two Frenchies dancing in black and white in a torn-apart living room, on the big screen our polite cow faces lit softly by New Wave Cinema I will never get into. The soft whir of CONTINUOUS STRIP IMAGERY.

Nov 25, 2023 | poetryfoundation.org | June Jordan |Solmaz Sharif

I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED GENOCIDE TO STOP I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND REACTION I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED MUSIC OUT THE WINDOWS I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED NOBODY THIRST AND NOBODY NOBODY COLD I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED I WANTED JUSTICE UNDER MY NOSE I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED BOUNDARIES TO DISAPPEAR I WANTED NOBODY ROLL BACK THE TREES! I WANTED NOBODY TAKE AWAY DAYBREAK! I WANTED NOBODY FREEZE ALL THE PEOPLE ON THEIR KNEES! I WANTED YOU I...

Nov 15, 2023 | poetryfoundation.org | June Jordan |Solmaz Sharif

Even tonight and I need to take a walk and clear my head about this poem about why I can’t go out without changing my clothes my shoes my body posture my gender identity my age my status as a woman alone in the evening/ alone on the streets/alone not being the point/ the point being that I can’t do what I want to do with my own body because I am the wrong sex the wrong age the wrong skin and suppose it was not here in the city but down on the beach/ or far into the woods and I wanted to go...

Nov 6, 2023 | poetryfoundation.org | June Jordan |Solmaz Sharif

Infinity doesn’t interest me not altogether anymore I crawl and kneel and grub about I beg and listen for what can go away (as easily as love) or perish like the children running hard on oneway streets/infinity doesn’t interest me not anymore not even repetition your/my/eye- lid or the colorings of sunrise or all the sky excitement added up is not enough to satisfy this lusting adulation that I feel for your brown arm before it moves moves changes up the temporary sacred tales ago first...