Sahar Fathi
Sahar Fathi graduated from the University of Washington Law School and is a member of the New York bar. She has served as adjunct faculty at both Seattle University and the University of Washington School of Law. She has been published in the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, the Seattle Journal of Environmental Law, and the Gonzaga Law Review. Her poetry has been printed in Writers Resist and the Writers Resist: Anthology (2018), as well as featured in the Feelings' Journal, Not Your Mother's Breastmilk, and is forthcoming in Swimming with Elephants.
2.0
Today, midday
While walking down the street
I inhaled and smelled Iran
And for a moment
I forgot my people were
Banned 2.0
Travel restricted
With bills pending for
Sanctions
And preemptive force
To rain bombs
On my cousins
For a moment
I forgot the hate and
Instead
I smelled the honeysuckle
In my grandmother's front yard
And I was
Transported to the bazaars
Filled with people
Who look like me
Who tweeze one eyebrow
Into two
Like me
Who can pronounce my name
Properly
People descended
From poets like Rumi
And super hero attorneys
Like Shirin Ebadi
For a moment I forgot
My blood shot eyes
And my pounding headache
From restless nights
And aggressive headlines
Spewing lies
For a moment
I was just me
Unapologetically
Bound between two countries