Genetic/Narcissistic Rage

My father holds the memory tight,

Kurdish words burning in the night.

They mock, they threaten, sharpen the blade,

for truths he carried, never betrayed.

He whispered to me of a Kurdish world,

its songs, its pain, its flags unfurled.

For that, they marked him, wanted him gone,

a hunted man for the tongue he’s drawn.

And in our home, betrayal near,

my mother’s eyes, cold, insincere.

Another hand of the assassin’s kin,

Turkish-backed shadows creeping in.