Where do you come from?

(image)

Must they always ask me where I come from?
I do not give answers
For my tongue like wounded snakes
Is tangled
inside these wiry barbs

What use is it, I ask, this is a camp of thieves
They have stolen my life
my freedom
But want to know the origin of man?

I come from Ethiopia, China, Greece, I want to say
Show me a map, and I will show you my home
But oh, they will cut my veins
And suck them, like wolves, under the moon

[It doesnt pay to be an Einstein here]

You read history books, eh, they smirk?
Poking me with the phallus ends of their riffles
What is the point of arguing?
that my language is far more superior than theirs?
that the color of my skin is by far the fairest of all?

Didn't you come from blood, too, I want to ask?
Like me, you too were flushed from your mother's womb
Streaks of red blanket you as you wail
For red is the color of blood, of genes, and DNAs
Does it matter if you are white, yellow or blue?

Ask not where I come from, you swine
There is only one way to enter this earth
Have you forgotten what it was like to crawl
out of your mother's thighs?

A knock on my head and the floor is my ocean
Must you always ask where do I plan to go?
Inside these walls, can I even breathe?
Which direction, you shout
Oh, I am always at the cross roads, I cry
left or right, what if I make a wrong turn?

Wherever you turn, my little friend
He finds you
He waits with bullets in his eyes
You see your name flash at the signpost
He's waited a lifetime for you
You can't even run nor hide
You can try to cheat him
But he finds out
He forgives and takes you back
No lover is more faithful.

26 April 2009, Bkk, wireless road, 7.31pm.