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Guidelines -- Lisa Suhair Majaj
Sep. 16th, 2011 01:51 pmLisa Suhair Majaj
Guidelines
If they ask you what you are,
say Arab. If they flinch, don't react,
just remember your great-aunt's eyes.
If they ask you where you come from,
say Toledo. Detroit. Mission Viejo.
Fall Springs. Topeka. If they seem confused,
help them locate these places on a map,
then inquire casually, Where are you from?
Have you been here long? Do you like this country?
If they ask what you eat,
don't disassemble. If garlic is your secret friend,
admit it. Likewise, crab cakes.
If they say you're not American,
don't pull out your personal,
wallet-sized flag. Instead, recall
the Bill of Rights. Mention the Constitution.
Wear democracy like a favorite garment:
comfortable, intimate.
If they wave newspapers in your face and shout,
stay calm. Remember everything they never learned.
Offer to take them to the library.
If they ask you if you're white, say it depends.
Say no. Say maybe. If appropriate, inquire,
Have you always been white, or is it recent?
-Lisa Suhair Majaj
From Geographies of Light (Del Sol Press, 2009)
Used by permission.
Lisa Suhair Majaj is the author of Geographies of Light (winner of the Del Sol Press Poetry Prize) and co-editor of three volumes of literary essays: Intersections: Gender, Nation and Community in Arab Women's Novels (Syracuse University Press, 2002), Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist (McFarland Publishing, 2002) and Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers. (NY: Garland/Routledge, 2000). She publishes poetry, creative nonfiction and critical essays in journals and anthologies the US, Europe and the Middle East, and has read at venues such as London's Poetry International. She currently lives in Cyprus.
Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of the Week widely. We just ask you to include all of the information in this email, including this request. Thanks!
Split This Rock
www.splitthisrock.org
info@splitthisrock.org
202-787-5210
Guidelines
If they ask you what you are,
say Arab. If they flinch, don't react,
just remember your great-aunt's eyes.
If they ask you where you come from,
say Toledo. Detroit. Mission Viejo.
Fall Springs. Topeka. If they seem confused,
help them locate these places on a map,
then inquire casually, Where are you from?
Have you been here long? Do you like this country?
If they ask what you eat,
don't disassemble. If garlic is your secret friend,
admit it. Likewise, crab cakes.
If they say you're not American,
don't pull out your personal,
wallet-sized flag. Instead, recall
the Bill of Rights. Mention the Constitution.
Wear democracy like a favorite garment:
comfortable, intimate.
If they wave newspapers in your face and shout,
stay calm. Remember everything they never learned.
Offer to take them to the library.
If they ask you if you're white, say it depends.
Say no. Say maybe. If appropriate, inquire,
Have you always been white, or is it recent?
-Lisa Suhair Majaj
From Geographies of Light (Del Sol Press, 2009)
Used by permission.
Lisa Suhair Majaj is the author of Geographies of Light (winner of the Del Sol Press Poetry Prize) and co-editor of three volumes of literary essays: Intersections: Gender, Nation and Community in Arab Women's Novels (Syracuse University Press, 2002), Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist (McFarland Publishing, 2002) and Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers. (NY: Garland/Routledge, 2000). She publishes poetry, creative nonfiction and critical essays in journals and anthologies the US, Europe and the Middle East, and has read at venues such as London's Poetry International. She currently lives in Cyprus.
Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of the Week widely. We just ask you to include all of the information in this email, including this request. Thanks!
Split This Rock
www.splitthisrock.org
info@splitthisrock.org
202-787-5210
