Only in Poetry, I have power

No more white gaze on my agile tongue speaking a fifth language with an
ACCENT.

No more white gaze on the “cheaper” countries in the world, people subjected to
A VALUE SYSTEM
Of more than and less than
That they have no control over whatsoever.

No more white gaze on my mother’s eyes on my face they can pierce through your
BULLSHIT
Your jokes about their smallness relative to your lifeless ones have expired.

No more white gaze on my flavorful food if you have ordered it on the streets on your cheap vacation you had better
FINISH IT
Or think twice before you want to steal a taste of the
SUBALTERN

No more white gaze on my face I don’t need your subconscious qualifiers
The only reason you started to think some women of color as
BEAUTIFUL
Is because they still have
BIG EYES AND THIN NOSES

No more white gaze on the quaint colonial buildings my government calls
HERITAGE
They are relics of history yes but I take they are also
TROPHIES
You come back to admire when you tour the colonies
YOU SICK FUCKS

Oh just because you’re not British or White Americans you think I am not talking about you?
Your skin color shares the same guilt
You liked globalization, don’t you? So swallow the
GLOBALIZATION OF RACIAL POLITICS

You have no idea how your fellow white people have left legacies
That MADE US WORSHIP YOU regardless of where you came from
Your basic features called for immediate reverence
Your economic power forced us to smile submissively while your travel hosts laugh in our faces on TV
Your countries are great countries, where my people try all their lives to run to

I AM NOT APOLOGETIC TO WHITE GUILT
So if you feel offended by this
Try living everyday believing you’re of the inferior kind, and that you don’t matter
Or don’t
Because you will never understand.

Painting by Syed Thajudeen, "Springmood (Odissi)