Anonymous Voices Among Us: An Afghan on the Run
You see, I speak for the voices that go unheard
In this world when they fade without a word.
So let me speak with the power I humbly wield
And the ignorance covering your ears shall yield.
-The P.O.E.T.
I am a simple Afghani man
Or that was what I planned
Though the world
Shuns me for my past
And though I have tried to right my wrongs
My past caught up
With such vehemence
And velocity at last
That it tears me apart
From top to bottom.
I am al Qaeda
Or I was and I thought I was
Until I turned away
As I chose to face another way
Away from a darkness
That gripped me even in my sleep.
I could not run, I could not hide
From the old bretheren of my old life.
I now live among my new bretheren in a new culture
Transfigured by strange values
Of moderization and change.
Have I found a new way to live
Or do I still harbor my shame and carry on?
But is it shame?
For the brothers I betrayed
Harbored only hatred masked by fear and anger
Toward something they could not perceive
Nor understand to comprehend.
And to join this new culture I sacrificed
My old bretheren's lives
But for what has it amounted?
I sacrifice my dignity among this new society
To betray brothers whom I once loved but now hate.
Now their disdain fills me with pain
And the cycle repeats over and over again.
Thus I sacrifice my honor to the old
And with the new I become bold
And declare these apparitions
Who haunt my living dreams
To face against a light
A light that seeks to destroy
Theirs darkest ploys upon this earth
That I was once apart of.
But still my new bretheren fail to accept my change
Their eyes filled with contempt, disdain
But I dimiss this to bring justice
To a world so intertwined
To think that I was once and only once
A simple Afghani man.
I walk the streets and the eyes
Of my new bretheren condemn me
For my past actions and my history
With me as their deepest fears.
As their enemy. But why not a friend?
And so the old secrets of my old life
Take flight from darkness to light.
My old bretheren perish.
My new bretheren look at me as if to see
Myself in a happy life
But I do not feel that could exist.
Surely never in this life.
And I walk the streets with my shame
As my actions and not my name
Carry the weight I continuously bear.
My brothers are now enemies
And strangers are still strange.
Enemies target me and others do not care.
My life has been threatened everywhere.
And yet I live anyways.
Why not?
I ride the bus and my past tries to kill me.
I see old brothers taking aim and firing at my heart
With pity and vengence.
No one stands up for me.
I am treated like scum.
An explosion and the bus stops dead.
Armed men enter and I know they are my brothers
But are not here to liberate my.
They come for blood.
Other's blood.
Innocent blood.