“Snowflakes of Yesterday” by Sam Safavi-Abbasi
Dr. Sam Safavi-Abbasi is an Iranian/ American physician who left Iran over 35 years ago during the war between Iran and Iraq. He lived in Germany as a refugee for several decades. He then emigrated to the United States for medical school and medical training. He is practicing as a neurosurgeon in Arizona and is author of many scientific, medical articles as well as poetry, non-fiction and fiction essays. He works as a spiritual activist, physician, husband and father.
A Word from the Author:
The poem is a discourse on the current war in Ukraine which began on February 24th of 2022, on a cold snowy day in Ukraine.
February 24th was also the day I lost my brother many years ago. This “coincidence” and the following is a discourse with grief, loss, the illusion of a “separate self” within the transiency of life.
It is Ukraine, a place that is familiar with a history of violence, war and starvation. Is it the energy of the earth that shines through onto our human experience? This poem relates our relationship to the power of land, nature and the earth and yet power’s ‘trickery’ on our human condition. It is worthwhile to re-evaluate our human relationships towards power. It is worthwhile to analyze power as a sacred, collective force… that refuses to be just ‘object to human desire’. Power and our relationship to power has to be reconsidered and reconciled as an aspect of our collective subconscious
snowflakes of yesterday,
slowly forming, dancing, reaching,
gathering together.
into a veil of white
covering trees, stones, lakes
surfacing everything.
then, melting with the sun-
with a veil of white remaining,
the veil of memories-
the coverings of yesterday.
today a soldier died.
today, someone’s son, a daughter.
today, someone’s blood,
under the unborn blossoms-
today, the trees.
today, someone’s salty tears.
today, the hands of violence.
today, we care for your grandmothers.
yesterday, you killed our daughters.
yesterday, the snow, the cold shivering lips.
today was the brothers’ birthday.
today someone without identity.
today I cry.
yesterday the snow was white.
yesterday the snow.
yesterday ‘Power’ tricked you again.
today your truth was weaponized.
yesterday you missed the snow.
yesterday ‘Power’ tricked you again.
yesterday the snowflakes couldn’t lie.
yesterday the snow.
the snowflakes of yesterday are now gone.
