Judith Terzi is the author of Museum of Rearranged Objects (Kelsay Books, 2018) as well as of five chapbooks including If You Spot Your Brother Floating By and Casbah (Kattywompus). Her poetry appears in a wide array of literary journals and anthologies and has been nominated for Best of the Net and Web. "Ode to Malala Yousafzai" was read on Radio 3 of the BBC and included in a study guide for the artist-in-residence program for State Theater New Jersey. She holds an M.A. in French Literature and taught high school French for many years as well as English at California State University, Los Angeles, and in Algiers, Algeria. Visit her website @ sharingtabouli.com.
Ode to Malala Yousafzai
She is a pool of gleam.
She is a seed, the rain.
She is a prairie of idea,
the harvest of motion.
She is rosewater
in a sandstone bowl.
She is the refugee, the tarp
of tent, the flame of fugue.
She is the arms of mothers,
a ribbon in a porcelain moon.
She is a lioness and loneliness,
the newborn swathed in pink.
She is earth yellow, jade,
aquamarine. She is the sea––
el mar, la mer, il mare, samandar.
She is a threshold, an arch,
a minaret. She is every headscarf––
magenta, celeste, amethyst.
She is majestic, magnifique.
She is a luminous lagoon.
She is our hands, our pen.
Malala.
She is a pool of gleam.
She is a seed, the rain.
She is a prairie of idea,
the harvest of motion.
She is rosewater
in a sandstone bowl.
She is the refugee, the tarp
of tent, the flame of fugue.
She is the arms of mothers,
a ribbon in a porcelain moon.
She is a lioness and loneliness,
the newborn swathed in pink.
She is earth yellow, jade,
aquamarine. She is the sea––
el mar, la mer, il mare, samandar.
She is a threshold, an arch,
a minaret. She is every headscarf––
magenta, celeste, amethyst.
She is majestic, magnifique.
She is a luminous lagoon.
She is our hands, our pen.
Malala.
© 2019
Judith Terzi
Judith Terzi was a Featured Poet at the June 2019 Second Sunday Poetry Series
Judith Terzi was a Featured Poet at the June 2019 Second Sunday Poetry Series