Gallery — Zhen – sarah badr

‘Zhen’ by Sarah Badr
London New Year Parade, 2006
Member of the Falun Gong holds a banner representing one of the moral principles on which its teachings are based: truthfulness (Zhen 真), compassion (Shan 善), and forbearance (Ren 忍).

Falling In (To Fall Out)

Love,
how my head hurts
and my eyes ache,
your voice fake
as I strain to listen
when you’re not here
(because I’m not her)
and all we have
is a moment’s silence
save for the low hum
of cables and wires,
double-decker tires

Ire, love
the ire
at once unabaiting
stirred and shaken
waiting, just waiting
for that overdue return
as I strain to hear
your silence so loud
my head hurts,
your voice lost
to muted whispers
of words unspoken

But nothing,
love
they mean nothing,
neither to you
nor to me,
this means nothing
the waiting (just waiting)
for whenever it is
we’ll be two adults
reasonably unafraid
to lay it out here
rather than run elsewhere

And so it is, love
that we only have now
as youth escapes us
and time mocks us
and work severs us
leaving blank spaces
(empty words)
blank spaces
(passive verbs)
because we mean nothing
but to mean nothing
to each other anymore.

– Sarah Badr