Saturday Verse: "For Mohammed Zeid, Age 15" - Naomi Shihab Nye

June 11th, 2016

FOR MOHAMMED ZEID, AGE 15

There is no stray bullet, sirs. 

No bullet like a worried cat
crouching under a bush.
no half-hairless puppy bullet
dodging midnight streets.
The bullet could not be a pecan
plunking the tin roof,
not hardly, no fluff of pollen
on October's breath,
no humble pebble in the street. 

So don't gentle it, please. 

We live among stray thoughts,
tasks abandoned midstream.
Our fickle hearts are fat
with stray devotions, we feel at home
among bits and pieces,
all the wandering ways of words. 

But this bullet had no innocence, did not
wish anyone well, you can't tell us otherwise
by naming it mildly, this bullet was never the friend
of life, should not be granted immunity
by soft saying–friendly fire, straying death-eye,
why have we given the wrong weight to what we do? 

Mohammed, Mohammed,  deserves the truth. 

This bullet had no secret happy hopes,
it was not singing to itself with eyes closed under the bridge
like the exiled lady in her precious faded hat.

                                                                    - Naomi Shihab Nye