TO THE REPUBLIC
I’ll don a hejab
If you let me drink from Pahlavi’s water wells
Build castles in your sand dunes
And inscribe Rumi’s verses upon your minarets
I’ll pardon you for your executions
If you resurrect the king and queen
I’ll convince your enemies to love you
If you fill your fortress with lambs
I’ll pray for you at the Wailing Wall
If you renounce your religion
I’ll give you a room of your own
If you paint your mountains purple
Sing the song of the whirling dervish
And give your exiled their rose gardens back
-Neta Leigh