By Mohamed Hassan
I don’t like the post even though I’m tagged
in it, today I’m witless on a bus to meet a soul
mate who isn’t, in the most liveable city that
isn’t, wearing Nikes despite my best intentions
hey they’re anti-Trump but pro-sweatshops, it’s
five o’clock and I’m on the wrong bus home, the
cars pile up to flee the jaws of capitalism, thank
god it’s Friday but the bombs are still dropping
on a Palestine that isn’t, I am a reporter but feel
silent, making news about house prices and a US
president that isn’t, talking about a Muslim ban
that isn’t, I am a Muslim on a bus leaving Auckland
and I’m trying not to read the news, talk to friends
in Denver who pray in terminals not made for our
skin and I tweet about Kanye and check my follows
check my new shoes in the glass waiting for the
wrong bus, I wear Palestinian colours by accident
and no one notices, wear a beard by accident
and hope I don’t have to travel soon, watch the
skyline shrink and thank god for a hot meal and
Netflix, for a soulmate at a bus stop in a home that
isn’t, I don’t think about Israeli jets ruffling the nights
feathers, I don’t think about when my life is ending
I don’t think about where I’ll meet my soulmate
if my house is bombed, if my car explodes, if they build
walls in our living rooms and we have to hold hands
through the cracks, if we never see each other again
because of a security policy, though a small part of me wonders
if it would make breaking up easier
Mohamed Hassan is a poet and journalist from Auckland, New Zealand who is currently based in Istanbul. He’s a NZ National Slam Champion and his first collection of poetry, “A Felling of Things” was released in 2016.
