Mustafa - Air Forces

Available on all platforms: Returning Minor Baba still reaches me in my sleep  I still hear his stories of war like shrapnel to armed fantasy  my dreams never survive  each nylon string like barbed wire each melody a cry he never learned to escape “why are you trying to make me return?” he asks  “where are you taking my blood?” I retrace our lineage of shared bullets  from the one that claimed my friend  to the one that claimed his  I question it’s intention but lead won’t speak I archive my memory “For Allahs sake, why do you feel the need to return?” Baba pleads  but I can’t return where I was never seen  where cousins await trial beneath ground  where mother still wakes with a sharp pain of longing for those she knows are destined to leave I still remember nights with her face pressed close to mine, my loose breath on her cheek a reminder I’m alive I still pretend to sleep I still perform with her memory  on a stage in a dream  or a stage that feels like a dream  th