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Wake Up, Woke

Yash Seyedbagheri

you’re woke, but are you awake?
proclaiming pride while pounding lattes
face colored like diluted porridge
best friends whiter than White Christmas
I’m not prejudiced, you proclaim, darting and ducking
a black woman with a briefcase
she doesn’t have a machine gun
you just need to keep distance
from all people. don’t see color
 

although fifty shades of black creep into nightly consciousness
but pleasing black, like chocolate
not dark night black and
you’re not homophobic because you watched Brokeback Mountain
your country club Episcopal priest is a liberal lesbian
who likes lattes. you wish you were gay.
why not me God?
yet you wonder and ask how do you fuck? how do you have children
I’m not prejudiced. But others are, you say, asking

questions about being Iranian or Latino
fetishizing fucking brown skin
while likening it to taco meat
you’re sure your neighbor Mohammad doesn’t
buy fertilizer for bombs, you’re almost sure,
but he’s probably just a soil agronomist or a horticulturist
just like Ramon isn’t smuggling drugs across
the border. You’re not searching Ramon
because you don’t trust, but to keep him safe while

 
others repeat the same questions
that’s a lot of others
arise you porridge faced revolutionaries from your slumber,

wake up
wake the fuck up

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