To wake up

A poem

To wake up
in the slow quiet of dawn, dry and warm
and know that 
elsewhere, so many fellow humans lie 
sleepless
in pain, damp, darkness amidst the fallen walls and wails 
of a city of sirens
or ice cold 
beneath the rubble of genocide

To wake up 
thinking of my children 
stirring in their beds next door
and know that
they have been taken hostage 
only by our love
and will not be sent to fight, or fall 
in an unholy war they did not consent to 

To wake up 
as a free woman
wander out into the open air
my hair blowing, limbs dancing in the autumn wind
and know that
under the same sun 
another woman, a freedom fighter
is lying brain-dead in hospital 
because she dared to do the same 

To wake up
with a pen, reaching for the right words
and know that
so many fellow writers sit speechless, shaking, empty-handed
their words prized from them in torture
surviving incarceration
fermenting hope
dreaming of freedom

To wake up
realising that
this one small, tender life is given 
and will be taken, perhaps without warning
and that it’s time for us to stay 
wide awake
use 	this privilege
amplify 	silenced voices
resist 			division and hatred
stand unified
for peace
for freedom
for justice.

First drafted November 2023
In memory of Armita Geravand
And all those in the struggle. 

Image: from a mural in Vienna, showing a Kurdish woman with the slogan Woman Life Freedom in Kurdish.