Everlasting Memory

‘Everlasting Memory’

Here

there are names

that the earth

still

holds within itself—

not through forgetting,

but

because they are weighty,

because they are warm,

because they are made of fire.

They went,

not because they had no choice—

but

because they knew

that some steps

must

be taken by someone.

Their breasts

did not become shields by chance;

they stood

where the wind

was fiercest,

where the shadows

carried knives.

Speak

their names—

softly,

like a prayer,

like water

reaching a root.

These

were the children of this soil;

their mothers’ milk

still

through this land’s veins

flows.

They live on—

not in stone,

not in an inscription—

in every step

that we

with heads held high

take.

And Iran

is that which,

when all have gone,

still

in the window

is bright—

that light

comes from the eyes of those

who did not leave,

and from the memory of those

who went

so that we might remain.

May their memory be honoured,

their names live,

their path continues.