Shades of Anger by Rafeef Ziadah

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 Yaffah and Haiffa
My mother was born under an olive tree on a soil they say is no longer mine
But I will cross their barriers, their checkpoints, their damn apartheid walls and return to my home land

I am an arab woman of color and we come in all shades of anger

And did you hear my sister screaming yesterday, as she gave birth at a checkpoint with israeli soldiers looking between her legs for their next demographic threat? Called her baby girl Janeen
And did you her Amna Muna screaming behind her prison bars as they tear-gassed her cell?
We are returning to Falasteen

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 next terrorist
Beard wearing, gun waving, towel head, sand niger
You tell me I send my children out to die
But those are your 'copters, your F16s in our skys
And lets talk about this terrorism business, for a second
Wasn't it the CIA that killed
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's 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 sandwiches raining down on us from your F16s master.'
Yes my liberators 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, this 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

http://www.rafeefziadah.net/