For You, Malala
fighting for the right of girls to read
defying threats of death and death itself
your body warring against assassins’ bullets
I inhale the breath of your purity, dream your blood-red dreams
For you, Malala
I pray to see my veiled misdeed
I will fast for tolerance in my life
and call out the cancers of hungry prejudice
blinding young and old
For you, Malala
oak-brave and oak strong
I will embrace the firmness of trees
their rootedness in earth
stretching arms into the heavens
For you, Malala
I will shed skins of selfishness
roll up my sleeves for the unfinished work
join battles for the rights of every human
For you, Malala, have restored our hope
Kit Zak is an environmentalist in Lewes, DE. She has published poems in The New Verse News, California Quarterly, The Broadkill Review, Jellyfish Whispers, The Blue Collar Review, and
several anthologies.