Dancer In the Street

for Mahsa Amini

by Margery Parsons / September 22nd, 2024

She pirouettes on the world stage,
a dance of defiance, a dance of grief and rage.

Such joy, as she rips the covering from her hair.
The freedom she tastes makes her body light as air.

She leaps, and a breath of the future lifts her higher.
She twirls and tosses her head scarf in the fire.

What grace, what passion, what courage guide her feet!
The hopes of half humanity rise with her in the street.

Dance sister,
with your shackles on the ground.

Dance, dance, dance sisters,
dance the tyrants down!

• Author’s Note:  This is a poem for the 2nd anniversary of the Women, Life and Freedom uprising against the murder of Mahsa Amini in Iran.

Margery Parsons is a poet and advocate for a radically different and better world. She lives in Chicago and in addition to poetry loves music and film. Her poems have been published in Rag Blog, Poetry Pacific, Calliope, New Verse News, OccuPoetry, Rise Up Review, Haiku Universe, Madness Muse Press and Illinois Poetry Society, with a forthcoming poem in Plate of Pandemic. Read other articles by Margery.

This article was posted on Sunday, September 22nd, 2024 at 8:03am and is filed under Poetry.