Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic

I Watched You Braiding Persian Violets into Your Hair

I Watched You Braiding Persian Violets into Your Hair Hair like the oil from your country bubbling in a world underground where exiled musicians play to women without their chadors. Hair of fire like Farrokhzad’s words: curled letters of Persian in India ink, the dip of a primitive fountain pen writing forbidden verses in the blank page of an old textbook. Hair the length of a first kiss, a boy’s trembling fingers and the walk home past the garden with the scent of mint and jasmine. Hair the sound of the Caspian Sea at night, the unconditioned break of each wave, and starlit sand pouring from a lover’s shoe like a Persian hourglass. 20 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...