“Contrary to what we, the people, have been told, we are the power; we have supreme authority because we are the masses and true power always resides with the masses, never with the global elite who, by their very nature, have always been a vulnerable minority and will always continue to be…As long as the masses realize that, of course.”
“Power to the people”
“Down with the oppressor”
We were unheard
So we made our voices heard
We went out on the street
And let the state hear our word
So they succumbed to defeat
To the polls we go
Our patriotism we show
We elect our leader
The joy of democracy
The flame of hope expands
And extinguishes just as fast
Our freedom isn’t convenient
It conflicted with global power hierarchies
Better Luck Next Time!
We pour into the streets again
We wanted freedom
Instead we got one of the most violent regimes in history
Innocents dead and a whole religion distorted
What is the truth under dictatorship?
Who writes the story of our people?
The regime who kills us?
Foreign governments that bastardize us?
Enemy states who dehumanize us?
Or the innocent people who die in the process?
Hear our words:
“Power to the people”
“Down with the oppressor”
For we walk closely around
Where the one who wrote the First Declaration of Human Rights
Now our people die in hails of bullets
From rooftops claiming our lives
Nameless and faceless individuals
Proponents of the Revolutionary Guard
The government protects the people
The government protects the revolution
The government protects the will of the people
The government protects state values
The government protects us
The government starves us
The government attacks us
The government steals from us
The government silences us
The government kills sons
The government kills daughters
The government kills fathers
The government kills mothers
The government kills us
Would you like to come visit?
Make sure your nation has strong diplomatic skills
Otherwise when the state kidnaps you at night
Why are you being taken?
What a stupid question, you know why!
For you are a spy!
What do you mean you are a teenager and innocent?
Your trial will decide that
Did I mention you have no right to fair trial?
For your heinous crimes against the state
We have no choice with what to do to you
Throws you blindfolded in a back of a car
Rapes you
Tortures you
Threatens your family
And rips you inside out for years
However, it is best not to worry not
After years of torture
You will finally be free
Do you see the light and the streets?
You didn’t think we were gonna let you go home, did you?
Death will be your release
Blood of Cyrus in our veins
Brilliance of Ferdowsi
Tongue of Khayam
Fearlessness of Atoosa
We the people
United to bring change
Disrupted by the all-powerful
Again we chant in our streets
“Power to the people”
“Down with the oppressor”
Are you still reading?
This is clearly a falsely written poem
Regrettably an enemy of the state published this work
However, it is best not to worry not
They were relocated to our finest prisons
My pen is losing ink
I feel weak
Am I being heard?
We die in masses
The world stays silent
“Defend human rights”
Unless it’s ours
My heart is in a country far away
Its name written upon my parent’s passport
Missing from mine
Longing to be in a place I’ve never seen
Conceptualized in my mind through stories and pictures
Now all I see is blood in the streets
