3 poems by Mansour Noorbakhsh. WCLJ Writer in Residence

Iranian Youth
     For Mahsa Amini, Nika Shah Karami, Sarina Esmaeilzadeh and all   martyrs of freedom

I am a generation that my days 
have never tolerated with me.
I see you kill
but verbalize the justice.
I see you steal
but lament because of oppression.
I see it's foul only
what you make in the name of morality.
I find no name for you
except bandits
except tyrants.

Which crypt have you come from
that have no tolerance for sunshine?
Where do you prostrate that doesn’t make
a bit of truth in your existence?

I am a generation that 
cannot tolerate the intolerance
though I have nothing but my burning heart
that has raised with anger and pain
against the hypocrisy that loots our moments.





My own damn story

We didn’t start our journey together.
Our roads had never crossed
except in the missionary ships.

My father was a Dalit who had become Muslim 
traveled with a ship of Christian Missionaries.
Who was my mother?

Al Capone and Citizen Kane arrived together.

We arrived later.
My mother died when I was born.

My brother got a job in the backstage of
Citizen Kane.
And my sister in one of the laundry shops of 
Al Capone.

I love to stroll with you 
in dusk for window-shopping in downtown 
to read the cover page of poetry books 
behind the vitrine of book shops.

And posing like poster of advertising models.





live portal
am i the most permanent attribute of death?
the most obscure irony of freedom?
 
what is the sisterhood between 
frenzy and defamation?
like death and fear?
like dictatorship and theft?

there is no wet-nurse for love

where the neon lights switch colors quickly
in a wet night
dropping the curtain never disturbs passersby

disasters grow in the suffocation
like moulds in the wet darkness
a place just to eat and sleep

within the most obscure irony of freedom?
where the other words are not listened
and hands are far to cooperate  
when life resembles a shadow

there is no wet-nurse for love
when live portal turns absurd

am i the most forgotten attribute of love?

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Mansour Noorbakhsh writes poems and stories in both English and Farsi, his first language, and has published books, poems, and articles in both languages. His book length poem, In Search of Shared Wishes, is published in 2017. He tries to be a voice for freedom, human rights, and environment in his writings. He presents The Contemporary Canadian Poets in a weekly Persian radio program. Mansour’s poems are published in WordCity Literary Journal, Verse Afire, Parkland Poets, several anthologies, and other places. His poems are translated in Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Serbian, Macedonian, and Chinese. Mansour Noorbakhsh is an Electrical Engineer, and lives with his wife, his daughter and his son in Toronto, Canada. Mansour is WordCity Literary Journal’s Poet in Residence.

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