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I wrote this poem when we were doing a direct action at my university
and there were palestinian citizens and Israeli soldiers
and I'm very petty about these things so I said I will only be a Palestinian.
I refuse to be a settler or a soldier.
So I was lying on the ground and this guy came and kicked me in the guts and said:
"You deserve to be *** before you have your terrorist children."
At the time I said nothing but then I wrote this poem for this young gentleman.
(Arabic)
Allow me to speak my Arab tongue before they occupy my language as well.
Allow me to speak my mother tongue before they colonize her memory as well.
I am an Arab woman of color and we come in all shades of anger.
All my grandfather ever wanted to do was wake up at dawn
and watch my grandmother kneel and pray in a village hidden between Jaffa and Haifa.
My mother was born under an olive tree on a soil they say is no longer mine
but I will cross their barriers, their check points, their damn aparthide walls and return to my homeland.
I am an Arab woman of color and we come in all shades of anger.
Did you hear my sister screaming yesterday as she gave birth at a check point
with Isreali soldiers looking between her legs for their next demographic threat!
called her baby girl Jeanine.
And did you hear Amna Muna screaming behind their prison bars as they tear gased her cell,
'We are returning to Palestine!'.
I am an Arab woman of color and we come in all shades of anger.
But you tell me, this womb inside of me
will only bring you your only next terrorist;
beard wearing, gun waving, towel head, sand ***!
You tell me, I send my children out to die,
but those are your copters, your F-16s in our skies!
And let's talk about this terrorism business for a second.
Wasn't it the CIA that killed Allende and Lumumba?
And who trained Osama in the first place?
My grandparents didn't run around like clowns
with white capes and white hoods on their heads lynching black people!
I am an Arab woman of color and we come in all shades of anger.
So who is that brown woman screaming in a demonstration?
Sorry, should I not scream?
I forgot to be your every orientalist dream.
Genie in a bottle, belly dancer, harem girl, soft spoken Arab woman.
Yes master, no master!
Thank you for the peanut butter sandviches raining down on us from your F-16s, master!
Yes, my liberaters are here to kill my children and call them,
collateral damage.
I am an Arab woman of color and we come in all shades of anger.
So let me just tell you, the womb inside of me
will only bring you your next rebel.
She'll have a rock in one hand, and a Palestinian flag in the other!
I am an Arab woman of color. Beware!
Beware!
My anger...