Fundamentalism

By Naomi Shihab Nye b. 1952

Because the eye has a short shadow or

it is hard to see over heads in the crowd?

If everyone else seems smarter

but you need your own secret?

If mystery was never your friend?

If one way could satisfy

the infinite heart of the heavens?

If you liked the king on his golden throne

more than the villagers carrying baskets of lemons?

If you wanted to be sure

his guards would admit you to the party?

The boy with the broken pencil

scrapes his little knife against the lead

turning and turning it as a point

emerges from the wood again

If he would believe his life is like that

he would not follow his father into war

Source: Fuel (BOA Editions Ltd., 1998)

Biography

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1952. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. Her experience of both cultural difference and different cultures has influenced much of her work. Known for poetry that lends a fresh perspective to ordinary events, people, and objects, Nye has said that, . . .

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