“My Father Lives” – Poem In Memory of Balbir Singh Sodhi (Victim of First Hate crime After 9/11)

In memorial of Balbir Singh Sodhi,�murdered on September 15, 2001.
The victim of the first hate crime to result in death�after the World Trade Center attacks.

my father lives�
in new york’s buildings
which scrape the sky

and

my father lives�
in afghanistan’s mountains�
which kiss the moon

and

my father lives�
in mesa, arizona desert plain
which swallows the first sand
storm/ bullet�

yes�

my father�
Balbir Singh Sodhi�

yes�

my father offers�
himself to strangers’ babies
he clinks/ clangs
with each coin tossed�

into every collection
plate of prayers�
to heal
a sister’s/ a brother’s/ another’s�
wounds�

and

my father wraps
his love
for every self/ every family/ every faith�
in each turban cloth pleat
laid soft onto forehead�
across nape�
set back to forehead�
with patterned care�
like a thousand rows�
of careful lined�
sugar cane field�

and

my father plants
every continent’s flag
every nation’s flag
every people’s flag�
on his accent tongue
he waves the banner�
of humanity breaking borders�
with every
stumble/ of speech
contradiction/ of grammar
hesitation/ of language

and

my father stretches/ lifts/ rises
from the fiber�
of every muscle�
of every man�
who pumps gas or drives a taxi
just so wheat and rice can melt
in his child’s stomach

and

my father lives/ my father lives/ my father lives
in new york / afghanistan/ mesa, arizona�

in�
the guilty�
innocent�
terrorist�
civilian�

in�
the leader�
follower�
persecutor�
persecuted�

in�
the thunder�
lightning�
war
peace�

and�

in my heartbeat
your heartbeat
our heartbeat�

and�

my father lives
in my love
your love
our love�

yes
my father�
Balbir Singh Sodhi

yes
my father
lives