Notes on Ending 2024 and Entering 2025…

By Abrahim Harb

Employment…

Lay off after lay off after bankruptcy filings throws job security into a frenzy in the United States

Trump re-elected…
The only one to have non-consecutive presidential terms since 1892

Palestine…
Protest because the BDS movement works, so continue to boycott and push for divestment and sanctions to defund ongoing genocide in Gaza

Luigi Mangione…
Proverbs 28.6 allegedly inspired Luigi to fix the broken healthcare system

Lessons from the Stage

By Abrahim Harb

To all the characters from the the stage that teach us lessons...

From Coast to Coast

By Abrahim Harb

Trading in subway rides for bike rides –
Trading in a 4th floor apartment without an elevator for something more manageable –
Trading in life without needing a car for life most likely needing a car –
Trading in snow worn concrete for sun soaked concrete –
Trading in a short season for sweater weather for a longer season of sweater weather –
          (Trading their cold weather heavy wardrobe for lighter layers, if you’re asking me…) 

To My Children…

By Abrahim Harb

I’ll be watching you from somewhere near the sun –
Don’t lose your smile –
And after a while, go have some fun.

You are born – and at some point,
your maker converts your mission –
It is no longer earthbound –

It’s the circle of life.
Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.

No matter what earthly success I have accrued –
None of it matters, bid it adieu.
Because I’ve started brand new.
Mourn my transition to guardian angel.

To All the African-American Women of the Past, Present, and Future…

By Abrahim Harb

I have been daydreaming about history again.

Later that night, I found a pen and paper –
At first, I go off memory, but quickly expand to web research.

To Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Angela Davis, and Marsha P. Johnson…
For teaching us that we are not powerless in the face of uncertain political landscape–

To Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Dr. Christine Darden…
For teaching us about patience and understanding our value because hidden figures are eventually revealed–

A house built in 1955 was her childhood home

By Abrahim Harb

44 years are uncounted for out of the 64 year history of this building.

There must be some be a box packed away in a storage unit with the history of the unaccounted years.

From the street, you can see the front door, stairs, porch and 3 front windows;

(She has a flashback to the one evening where her dog was perched at the top of the stairs like a gargoyle guarding a castle during a summer hangout.)

No Light, No Light

By Abrahim Harb

If something feels off,
it is -

The lamp bulb smashed as I stare off into the distance -

And I walk across the sparsely lit bridge to clean the mess.

One piece of glass wedges in my big toe.
I lunged forward in pain -
And another piece wedges in my heart.
I fall backwards, grasping my chest, only to have a bigger shard of glass stab my backside.

Raise Your Voice in Poetry

By Abrahim Harb

Raise your voice in poetry.
Within a seed, a shooting tree.
A tingling universe you'll see.
Verses coursing one, two, three.

I wish I may, I wish I might
See you shining bright tonight.
A shooting tree is infinite.
From just a seed—you know, I’m right!

Ignite the brilliance from within a seed.
Briskly corral the words you’ll need.
Change the syntax. Will this word precede
that one? Trust the word flow, indeed.

New Year Poem with No Title

By Abrahim Harb

The day began
with no joy;
Aha! Joy,
it's sucked clean.
Again;
"How joyous,"
says my sarcasm.

It is re-gifted to me,
by mid-day;
and stolen,
from my pocket
a few hours later;
he tore my pocket
& subsequently my smile.

Your Love

By Abrahim Harb

The devotion you gave me no longer arrives.

Those words you whispered to me are being re-gifted.

The memories we shared—thrown in a box.

Do you want it? Cuz I don’t—

You never respond—
& I’m greeting at the front door not by a barking dog,
but a box shoved in the corner under the coat rack, labeled with your name.

Miss. Gilbert

By Abrahim Harb

From the start, it was no love affair—
all we do now is make love anytime I’m free:
in the basement,
on the couch,
in the bathroom,
and occasionally before class.

A Young Woman

SEEDS Literary & Visual Arts Journal (Spring 2015)

Bouquet of Flowers

 

SEEDS Literary & Visual Arts Journal (Fall 2014)

Ode To Maya (And Caged Birds)

SEEDS Literary & Visual Arts Journal (Fall 2014)
Ode To Maya (And Caged Birds) appears in its current version here.

To The Greeks...

"...If no one else will join me in burying him, 
then I will bury him, and chance what danger 
may result from burying my own brother. 

Nor am I ashamed to disobey thus 
and defy the State..." 

Doo-Wop

biology w/ jim, the writer

By Abrahim Harb

you write so feverishly—
do you ever not write?
of course you occasionally talk,
but it’s about poetry;
it never tires either of us.
it’s the glue, that binds me & you -
as the voice of this professor rings endlessly.
Soon all I can hear are words.
But whose?
2 p.m. comes all too soon.
I can’t wait to do this again.

A Dance (With Lust)

a journey

By Abrahim Harb

I
A not-so-cheap affair,
you just keep cramming,
your lovely mouth with food—

good food, I must proclaim!

II
an answer,
to your (un)spoken prayers?
& your collision with real mediation—

not just some wannabe act, as before.

III
A trip cut short,
3 months too short
& that medicine man from 2 years ago—

She wonders upon arrival, is He still alive?

Scream Never Heard

By Abrahim Harb

Dear your lost soul,
let me help you,
and your dear old soul.
snap back, back
I still hear the echo, echo
come back, back