The Wager by Fatemeh Shams

We were alive, but within ourselves we had died
We’d choked down the outlawed words we were forced to hide

We were alive, but silent, alone, and homesick,
Disheartened by the scars we’d endured side by side

We were shoulders, embraces, tears, and our cries, alone
In a strange town, suffering the wounds that we bore inside

And though horror and fear made their nest in our souls
We would not believe in our loss, defeat was denied

We stood and we died so that life would take hold, making
The wager, in this solitary grave where we’ve died.
 
- Fatemeh Shams -

Iranian poet, born in 1983,
exiled in United States


Far From Home, Poet Fatemeh Shams Finds Sense of Belonging and a Voice at Penn
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