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This Place is Here
- University of Arkansas Press
- Chapter
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ANNIE FINCH This Place is Here A dialogue with the YouTube video “Poem from the rooftops of Iran,” posted June 19, 2009 Friday the 19th of June 2009 Tomorrow, Saturday Tomorrow is a day of destiny Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before (and our cries are louder too) Where is this place? (It is with us) Where is this place where every door is closed? (It is with us) Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder? Where is this place? I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases ANNIE FINCH ✦ 15 (We wait every night for your voices, your words, your poems) It shakes me (We see the lights in the darkness from your roof We shake with you we cry to hear your voice) I wonder if God is shaken (we shake with you) Where is this place where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where is this place where no one comes to our aid? (It is our world too) Where is this place where only with our silence we are sending our voices to the world? (Your silence shakes us. Your voice shakes us) Where is this place where the young shed blood and then people go and pray? Standing on that same blood and pray . . . Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants? Where is this place? You want me to tell you? This place is Iran. The homeland of you and me 16 ✦ ANNIE FINCH [44.200.77.59] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:10 GMT) (The homeland of you and me.) This place is Iran. (The homeland of you and me.) (Tomorrow is a day of destiny.) ANNIE FINCH ✦ 17 ...