14 Days at Home

Parwana Amiri is an author, poet and activist from Afghanistan who is living in Greece since September 2019. Her poetry may seem softly written, but it contains hidden stories and bitter truths.

This poem is a direct reflection of Parwana and her family’s condition during 14 days of quarantine. During pandemics many of us experience being left alone, at home, with less passion, but no dark sky stays dark and there is a light behind each dismal, scary night.

What we all need to know is that as a family, in any condition we should be together and support each other, also as a community we should try to understand each other, and family as residents of one planet, we should be all healers of each other’s pains and instead of averting our eyes from reality we need to accept and find solutions for that, these are all lessons that pandemic have taught us.

The idea of the painting is all my own, from the bottom of my heart. I stand alone in a dark world, full of oppression. Humans kill each other. They have no mercy on women and children a.nd I’m a lonely girl in a horrible world I have ideas for peace. Ways to relax. I have a colorful world in my head. A world away from oppression. Away from murder. A beautiful world that I have painted myself I want to take my colors and hold my brush in my hand and go out and make the world beautiful and colorful with my colors. The streets are dark, but I enlighten them, beautify them everywhere with my art, and bring peace and tranquility back to the world.

 

14 days at home

These days it is me and my bed

My closed eyes, that are open behind eyelid

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These days it is me and my hands

That are trying to touch the pen but can’t

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I feel being like a fish, who has been seeking the beach

But is regretted ,wishing to be back to sea

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These days I can see no star, my eyes are not courageous to see the light

My life is reversed,my days are night, and at night no desire to sleep without light

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These days I am thirst of reading and hunger of writing with my magical pen My stomach is empty, don’t like to eat anything, as my heart is filled

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These days no chance comes to knock my door, ideas scape from me

My days are passed counting the number of clock, hung on the wall

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These days, days pass so fast and I have no chance to catch the time

These days I pass many berries inside of myself and even around

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These days I miss my past days, I would love to be out

I miss being loved by children around, being hugged, sharing love

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These days, it is me and my family that are all like me

We are all missed by out people as we miss them

.

But these days will be passed, good days will come out

As the sun does not remind behind dismal clouds forever.