By Julie Quiroz
For the Islamophobia Working Group, University of Michigan
You sing the Quran
to the open sky
48 hours after a white man
slaughtered your people
as they prayed
You sing the Quran
into a microphone
your power amplifies
sacred notes
vibrating
across millennia
of mothers
and fathers
and children
You sing the Quran
on the steps of a library
where students stopped a war
defunded apartheid
launched a strike that pried open doors
for black and brown children
the university never meant to let in
You sing the Quran
on Anishinaabe ancestral land
where families fought murderous white invaders
indigenous people holding ground to this day
with songs they refuse to forget
languages born of reverence
seeds that hold the future
powerful vision rising now
against all odds
Against all odds
you sing the Quran
to the open sky
You sing
the Quran
to the open sky
May we all listen
May we all sing
May we all be so brave
*
Julie Quiroz lives in Michigan where she is a founding member of the Untold Stories of Liberation & Love women of color poetry collective. In her day job Julie is Director of Narrative Future with Movement Strategy Center. Julie is currently gathering her poems into a collection called "The Poetry of Small Choices." For a glimpse of her childhood check out her story American Residence.
Comments