Poetry: “Green Group” by Raza Ayoob

Green Group
     with Solmaz Sharif and after a painting by Salman Toor

          I
To stand at this gate
To hope to be let in
To wear a pink hat with your kameez to appear friendly
To disrobe
To call your mother and say I have arrived but not having service at this gate
To hear her say Please be safe.. it is dangerous for people like us
To recall the two songbirds that came to your tree to rest each night before their next flight
To fly and to be let in
To be let in until

          II
To bend your head
To look just below his eyes
To sport whitening cream to feel a part of one of them but know you are apart
To rehearse in your head what you will say when they ask What is the purpose of your visit? and for you to struggle
     getting the words out
To find a face like yours in the crowd
To tell a joke and to smile when the officer asks What do you do? and you say poetry
To sweat

          III
To wonder if you will be let in
To know this nation will not be home
To lament that you could not carry a book with you
To say this is my life, a “Vulnerability Study,” and I look to it and finally enter
To recall a poem that you were so lucky to have memorized for the road

          IV
To recall when Solmaz Sharif wrote,
     baba holding his pants
     up at the checkpoint
     and know that could be you
To stare deeply at a mark on the wall to search for home

          V
To be let in

          VI
     To long to talk to you
To be let in to your syntax

          VII
To be let in until