"Credible Lies" by Faleeha Hassan

Credible Lies

By Faleeha Hassan 

Oh, Faleeha

How brilliant is your future

I whisper in my ear

And pat my shoulder

Every morning

I open my day with a big lie

I tell myself

Faleeha

leave the news to the promoters of rumors

And the houses being bombed by skilled pilots

They will be rebuilt immediately afterward

Leave Iraqi women to be sold in the Sbaya Bazaar in Mosul

Mothers will give birth to other daughters nine months later

Don’t worry about the man who sells his life for a handful of coins under the sweltering sun

One day he will be able to get a Chinese umbrella  

Don’t worry about your niece whose face now being eaten by skin cancer

She will get through photoshop a wonderful picture for her profile on Facebook 

Why do you look so long at picture of your friend who is missing from Kuwait war?

He is lucky

He survived the darkness of grave

Oh, Faleeha

Leave the children of Baghdad to wake up to violent explosions

Music is no longer fit for their mornings

Write down the martyrs names on a piece of a paper and place it in your old coat and leave it in the closet

Or send it to the dry cleaners

I’m tired of counting the names of the martyrs and the war never ends

Faleeha

Don’t plan for the future

It is as a close as   a sniper’s bullet

Yes ,

I open my day with a big

Big

Big lie

But no lie can cover the scary truth 

Faleeha Hassan- Biography

She is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, playwriter born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967, who now lives in the United States.

Faleeha is the first woman to wrote poetry for children in Iraq.

She received her master's degree in Arabic literature, and has now published 20 books. Her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosevih, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek  and Albanian. Ms. Hassan has received many awards in Iraq andthroughout the Middle East for her poetry and short stories.

Faleeha Hassan has also had her poems and short stories published in a variety of American magazines such as: Philadelphia poets 22, Harbinger Asylum, Brooklyn Rail April2016, Screaming mamas, The Galway Review, Words Without Borders, TXTOBJX, Intranslation, SJ Magazine, Nondoc, Wordgathering , SCARLET LEAF REVIEW,  Courier-Post, I am not a Silent Poet, Taos Journal, Inner Child Press, Atlantic City Press, SJ Magazine, Intranslation Magazine, The Guardian, Words Without Borders, Courier-Post, Life and Legends,

Wordgathering, SCARLET LEAF REVIEW, Indiana Voice Journal, The Bees Are Dead, IWA, PoetrySoup, Poetry Adelaide Literary Magazine, Philly, The Fountain Magazine, DRYLAND, The Blue Mountain Review, Otoliths, Taos Journal of Poetry and Art, TXTOBJX, DODGING THE RAIN, Poetry Adelaide Literary Magazine, NonDocPhilly, DRYLAND, American Poetry Review, The Fountain Magazine, Uljana Wolf, Arcs, Tiferetand Ice Cream Poetry Anthology, Dryland Los Angeles underground art &writing Magazine,Opa Anthology of contemporary , BACOPA  Literary Review , Better than Starbucks Magazine, Tweymatikh ZQH Magazine,TUCK Magazine, Street Light Press andEmpty Mirror Magazine