The Green of Iran

No departures here.
In Tehran out and in are closed,
under and over, stained.

Yet how green is the green of her sky.
The clouds bleed this green,
green the river, fields of rice,
the moss that grows
on Alborz mountain rocks.

The earth births this green
that the ants carry through
the cracks of Evin’s walls.
The birds shit green
on the turbans of bearded men.

Green is the green of this land,
the poplars lining parks,
green inked letters of lovers
holding hands in dark alleys
where green is the color of eyes,
the smell of dust swept clean.

Green is the ears of geraniums
on windowsills, and feet
of roses in backyards,
and the color of ponds
populated with green-
scaled fish, and frogs who sing
to the night dreams of green.

–Sholeh Wolpé

Sholeh Wolpé is the author of Rooftops of Tehran, The Scar Saloon, and Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad for which she was awarded the Lois Roth Translation Prize in 2010 by the American Institute of Iranian Studies. Sholeh is the associate editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East edited by Reza Aslan (Norton), the guest editor of Atlanta Review (2010 Iran issue) and the poetry editor of the Levantine Review, an online journal about the Middle East.

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