Poetry

Déjà vu

I once told my mother:
I hate you.
I was proud of my courage
Until today
Today, my son told me:
I hate you.
My childhood
Flows in my veins
As mercury

Kishwar Naheed (Pakistani poet, 1991)

Home, sick, for winter
The cat and four walls my world
Cold memory for lunch.

                                                             Jan Jackson 2010

*Haiku is a traditional Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines of 17 syllables or sound units (5-7-5), containing a brief, vivid image or moment, and usually invoking the natural world. 

Editor’s comment:
Readers may recall that Jan Jackson was one of three Muslims who, in 2003, made a complaint of religious vilification against the Catch the Fire Ministry Inc. in a headline case in Melbourne that lasted five years.