Poem – If I Die

This poem is a guest post by Tahera Rahman.

If I Die

 If I die, would you ask why?

If I were beaten to a pulp on the side of the road?

If I were choked to death?

If I were shot in my home, would you pursue justice in my name?

Would you picket in the streets, march to beats,

Would you treat my life like more than just a game?

If I die, would you ask why?

Would you wipe my children’s tears?

            Care for my parents?

            Assuage my community’s fears?

Would you remember to help the people I tried to help?

If I die, would you assess my pigment count before you decided to care?

Would you envision my fear as I looked into my killer’s eyes?

Would you unite to say, “Cross us again, if you dare”?

Would you voice the thoughts I never had a chance to say?

We die, but does anything change?

We die, but does anyone else ask why?

Tahera Rahman is a journalist, cookie monster and on-again-off-again fitness freak who suffers from chronic restlessness due to an irreparable case of the travel bug. She is the producer and a host at Radio Islam, the nation’s first daily, live call-in talk radio show produced by Muslims for the mainstream market.