For Asifa. 

I wish I had never heard her name. 

Maybe, in a better world

I would have, anyway. 

Maybe, then, it would have been breathed

in awe, in wonder, in pride-

maybe. 

The odds are against it, though. 

I rather think-

she would've grown up ordinary-

an indifferent education,if any,

jobs that paid for the gas

and energy saving electric bulbs,

and because this better world

is still the same world

maybe a husband to cook meals for

and children's noses to wipe snot from

and the occasional quiet moment

of looking up at the stars

and thinking

what if

an ordinary life

the best odds offered

to any of us-

- I wish I hadn't seen her eyes

brighter than anything in that photograph,

even her purple kurta with the yellow flowers-

I wish I had never heard her name.