Celebrating Norouz/march 2013

Celebrating Norouz    

Mahnaz Badihian 2010

We had to soak a bowl of wheat or lentil

And swaddle them in a wet cloth for a week

And spread those sprouted grains of wheat in a

Beautifully shaped dish and let them grow to a weed

Then we would make little colored figurines

To represent us, so they could sit atop grass wheat

Then mother will go to “Charbagh” bazaar and buy

Beautiful little red fish to represent life

On the table we had hyacinth to freshen the room

Then came time to color eggs in those little pots

Mother would never forget to put

Open-paged Hafiz, on her chosen ghazal

While reciting the lines

She told us never sleep with old clothes

The night before uncle Norouz is coming

We were seven little dwarfs then

At the 13th day of Norouz

We had to throw those planted grains 

In any river or running water we could see

To have old, sad roots taken away from us