Sometimes There Is A Day

Sometimes there is a day you just want

to get far away from.

Feel it shrink inside you like an island,

as if you were on a boat.

I always wish to be on a boat.

Then, maybe, no more fighting

about land.  I want that day to feel

as if it never happened, when Ahmad was burned,

when people were killed, when my cousin was shot.

The day someone went to jail

is not a day that shines.   I want to have a clear mind

again, as a baby who stares at the light

wisping through the window and thinks,

That’s mine.

Credit

From The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019) by Naomi Shihab Nye. Copyright © 2019 by Naomi Shihab Nye. Used with the permission of the poet.