Shahada

my spirit knows your own, brother
who is my friend
and my love
yet you are my brother
here and now

Jibril placed a solitary feather
of majestic angels wing
upon both of our foreheads
gifted us with sight
to show what could be
and cannot

my brother, do you realize
how I know you,
as I do not even know myself
as you know me,
as you do not know yourself

look, look into a mirror
there i am
in your eyes
deep concentric pools of truth
lie beauty

we have been gifted with understanding
a treasure princes and kings
have fought and perished for
centuries past
connected as such
now

i am oceans away
my brother
who is my friend
yet my love

my spirit knows your own, 

brother

mortification by Shazia Gulzar and Susan Marie

if i had a choice, i would have changed.
i would have altered, all the ways i have paved, 
for you, for me, for all of us.
but i could not, so forgive me for all the wrong.
i was all roped in snares, 
of this viciously attractive world. 

now that i want to change, 
this world is acting strange. 
the struggle with fallacy, the bigotry of my mind,
i am fed up so i am putting you behind.

the salvation i seek, the amendments i want to make, 
i have given up on all what it takes. 

so adios to you, to me and to all of you,
i tried and tried and tried
but alas! 

in the end 
i failed.

* * * 

if i had a choice, and i do
i would change nothing, no altering nor paving
not for you, me, us, anyone
for i have no regret nor sin

the creases of my pale and shaking palms
lined red with blood
are roped and snared
as thoroughbreds in corrals
from this malicious existence called humanity

i, too wish change
for the world is off kilter

ghosts of past dig their gnarled rheumatic claws
into the marrow of my bones
i simply swat my upturned palm 

my battered brain and spirit
this walking wounded self
like you, me, all of us
i, too say farewell

but we have not failed
nor given up
we have progressed

and that 
is our 

salvation

© 2011 Shazia Gulzar and Susan Marie