Bread and Water

Bread and Water

I am six, sitting on the floor
With a metal spoon in my hand
Stirring water in a 13 ounce steel glass
Feeling in detention or some reprimand

Clankty clankt clankt

Mom and Dad have left us
Have run off to a foreign land
The monthly check is very late
Four hungry children feel they are mistakes

Clankty clankt clankt

My beautiful, mysterious, artist sister
Takes care of us younger kids
She makes up songs for us to sing:

Clankty Clankt, Clankaty Clankt

Mix the water with the salt
Add red pepper, stir them all

Clankty Clankt, Clankaty Clankt
Clankty Clankt, Clankaty Clankt

Got no money, got no food
Bread and water taste real good

Clankty Clankt, Clankaty Clankt

Clankty Clankt, Clankaty Clankt

by Fazeel Azeez Chauhan

2-1-02

Opening the BottleNeck and Breaking the Bottle

Breaking the BottleNeck

Half a life spent addicted to feeling abused and down

Don't like staying up so a weak nation is drowned in a bottle

Five hundred years of colonization injected in our blood

Like taking the plague vaccine and AIDS mixed in a bottle

A thousand years of sermons from the religious dark ages

Can't grant our wishes this genie locked in a bottle

After six months of marriage we got used instead of intimate

You put me distant on your shelf closed in a bottle

With the broken shards of glass I cut my neck lace ropes

I'll never again be a a less-than or a victim confined in a bottle

by Fazeel Azeez Chauhan

7-22-05