exotic

suheir hammad

don't wanna be your exotic

               some delicate fragile colorful bird

               imprisoned caged

               in a land foreign to the stretch of her wings

don't wanna be your exotic

               women everywhere are just like me

               some taller darker nicer than me

               but like me but just the same

               women everywhere carry my nose on their faces

               my name on their spirits

don't wanna

               don't seduce yourself with

               my otherness my hair

               wasn't put on top of my head to entice

               you into some mysterious black voodoo

               the beat of my lashes against each other

               ain't some dark desert beat

               it's just a blink

               get over it

don't wanna be your exotic

               your lovin of my beauty ain't more than

               funky fornication plain pink perversion

               in fact nasty necrophilia

               cause my beauty is dead to you

               I am dead to you

not your

               harem girl geisha doll banana picker

               pom pom girl pum pum shorts coffee maker

               town whore belly dancer private dancer

               la malinche venus hottentot laundry girl

               your immaculate vessel emasculating princess

don't wanna be

                        your erotic

not your exotic

Posted here with permission from Suheir Hammad