Majid Naficy: A Nowruz Card to Evin Prison

Aha! That’s the one I want:
A simple Nowruz* card
With raised and golden margins,
The design of a narcissus flower,
The scent of Georgian biscuits
And “May spring be blissful!”

Today from exile
I send this card to bloody Evin*
For a loved one in prison
Who at the time of arrest
Had gone to mountains with friends
To sing the songs of Nowruz.

Nowruz will come
From the snow-capped Mountain of Damavand*
To the confines of prison and exile
And no fatwa can delay
The day it will arrive.

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*- Nowruz or the Persian New Year is celebrated on the first day of spring. It is a pre-Islamic festival and the theocracy does not welcome it.
*- A notorious political prison in Tehran.
*- The highest mountain in Iran.
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Copyright 2009 Majid Naficy

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The notorious Evin Prison in Tehran where prisoners are systematically raped and tortured