“It’s just a joke”

Selima Chowdhury

by Selima Chowdhury

Story

I hear the way you talk

About how my skin is too dark

About how my name leaves a mark

That makes me foreign

In the country I was born in

You say “it’s a joke”

and we both know that’s not true

You say “it’s just a word”

So it can’t hurt you

But you don’t have my memories

What do you know about the damage it leaves?

Who are you to judge what’s right and what’s wrong

When you never had to question where you belong?

If it’s a joke, then why isn’t it funny?

If I’m welcome here, why do I feel like running?

And if fairness is real, why do I have to explain

The anger, the crying, the fighting and pain?

And why am I the one who’s overreacting

If I am the one who has what your lacking

Which is the willingness to accept

And the decency to respect

Those who have suffered and those who have cried

About those who have taken and those who have lied

Those who have been driven to insanity

By those who are entitled to vanity

But hey, if it doesn’t concern you

And doesn’t seem strange

It isn’t your issue

And there’s nothing to change…right?

© Selima Chowdhury 2023-02-19

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