My Ma Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

My MA

On one page of her book
-she has signed:
-"To Nassy…"
-then her name
-Margaret Atwood

Frankly Margaret
-was lazy, never read
-now I am
-and sorry
-I am man and honest
-true enough to confess

Instead follow you everywhere
-your very famous book
-"Handmaid's Tale"

Thanks to that I recall
-many things
-including my past
-my MA
-not of arts as most know
-but for guns, using arms
-Military Academy

That was what had never dreamed of
-knew not what it was
-life led me to that fort
- (alamut of sabbah_
-somewhere where
-to me was life-changing)

Two of us
-Ali, I
-classmates with same fate
-got in bus and direct
-wearing our uniforms
-ended there
- (Aghadassieh)
-to become officers….

Like the time of Pharaohs
- (and maybe long before)
- (and surely long after…)
- (brainwash dictators…)
- (Sabbah to Stalin and Hitler…)

We were to serve the "Shah"
-to swear to accept sacrifice
-our life for single one
- (him who meant Arya;
-…Iran in antique tongue…)

Looking back I recall
-the tortures in name of
-"Making you the great officers…"

Of course I am thankful for the seed
-planted inside me as the best fertile sole
-the power to speak; say: "Yes…No…"
-without slight fear of life-death
-which is based on learning
-survivals and fighting, resilience,

Margaret…
-like you I
-have read much
-utopia…dystopia

That makes us the poets
-"We must write…"
-"Must reveal…"
-"Must remind…"

This is why
-even if my MA
-is not a Master in any art
- (though later I got two …
-…in writing and culture…)
-lets me be thankful for
-book you wrote
-things I learned
-from you and others…