When I drink tea in New Jersey

Like a girl who writes poetry about a boy she has never seen
My day sits with all this disappointment
Counting her fleeting moments
 I remember my mother using the smell of onions
 To shed her tears in the kitchen
For the absence of my father
 Who climbed his life war by war
Whenever he wore his military belt
 He wished that war was just an old shoe
He could take it off whenever he liked
And he didn't need to think of fixing it at the cobbler's shop
I remember my brother
Who asked in his letters--
When will the war understand that we are not good at dealing with death?
I remember us forty years ago
We were kids, very much kids
With colourful clothes and hearts
It was enough for us to see a balloon
To drown in big laughter
I remember all this now 
When I drink my tea
And
I practice my loneliness.
 
Faleeha Hassan is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, and playwright born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967, who now lives in the United States. Faleeha was the first woman to write poetry for children in Iraq.

She received her master's degree in Arabic literature, and has now published 26 books, her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosnian, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek, Serbia, Albanian, Pakistani, Romanian, Malayalam, Chinese, ODIA, Nepali and Macedonian language. 

She is a Pulitzer Prize Nominee for 2018, Pushcart Prize Nominee for 2019. She's also a: 

Member of International Writers and Artists Association.
Winner of the Women of Excellence Inspiration award from SJ magazine 2020,
Winner of the Grand Jury Award (the Sahitto International Award for Literature 2021)
One of the Women of Excellence selection committees 2023
Winner of women the arts award 2023
Member of Whos’ Who in America 2023
SAHITTO AWARD, JUDGING PANEL 2023

Cultural Ambassador - Iraq, USA
Email : d.fh88@yahoo.com