On the way back from school
By Braveheart Gillani
“The thing about the past is that it never really is.” – Irish saying
There is that of God in everyone
Trying to find God in my gods
What happens when God gets triggered?
Did he get trigger-happy?
She had her son’s stuffed animals peeking from the glove compartment
There is that of God in everyone
Cloaked in moral injury, he always smells blood…everywhere
What happens when God gets triggered?
His mother dropped him off at school in the mornings
Her son’s stuffed animals peeking from the glove compartment
“Fucking Bitch”
Cloaked in moral injury, he always smells blood…everywhere
Braveheart Gillani is a striving poet, pilgrim, and frequent procrastinator whose work is shaped by movement across disciplines and identities. Trained as an engineer and now a social work professor, he writes with technical precision and deep attention to human vulnerability. His interests include environmental justice, LGBTQ+ health, and masculinities, particularly the ways care, labor, and belonging are negotiated within and against dominant systems. His poems often explore uncertainty, ethics, and endurance, lingering in the spaces between action and delay, conviction and doubt, seeking forms of attention that are both rigorous and humane.
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