poem: TWO VOICES
from our poet of the month: Mehnaz Sahibzada
Getty/ Fotostock32
"You find / your optimism stuttering. / Sometimes you let yourself / pray then judge yourself"
TWO VOICES
Sometimes you wake up
to sadness in your mind.
Nothing has happened yet,
and you are already hopeless.
The things you think about
to feel angry come singing
to the surface, and now the
coffee doesn’t taste so
good anymore, and you
can suddenly sense your
impatience with the world,
the buzzing phones and
mounting traffic. You find
your optimism stuttering.
Sometimes you let yourself
pray then judge yourself
for engaging in some
antiquated practice. Other
times you decide to let yourself
be angry. Because wouldn’t it
be toxic to push these feelings
down now? Though mostly
what upsets you is something
you could never control. This is
when you start to notice that
there are two voices inside
of you. The cynic who gets angry
and the poet who observes.
Listen to Mehnaz reading Two Voices:
Mehnaz Sahibzada shares her experience of poetry with S&H:
"Over the past few years, I’ve written many speculative poems--channeling dark, romantic, and suspenseful moods to process my experience. Through a mysterious lens, I’ve explored topics as diverse as aging, introversion, creativity, and spirituality."
Select poems from My Gothic Romance by Mehnaz Sahibzada. Copyright © 2019 by Mehnaz Sahibzada. Reprinted with permission of Finishing Line Press.
Read more poems:
I will be My Mother's Apprentice by Carmen Giménez Smith
CONFETTI by Mehnaz Sahibzada
