kindness
K. Eltinaé
We are still dreaming of a vacation
from being chased out of cities.
For the empathy every child dangles
in their mother’s eyes as hope.
For a future where the ‘other’ challenges every fear
we unlearn and accept to grow from.
One day you too will face that same floor
you pressed a man’s face against before you handcuffed him.
You too, will cry futile tears to keep living.
The diference is your dignity
will never know cages
and days without showering
will never know the shame
of running from a place
you are forced to return to
because you weren’t born disposable.
If you feel threatened about living in a country
full of sleek, dark and beautiful bodies
arriving on boats smiling and glowing
though nobody has welcomed them,
stop watching the news.
This poem is for you,
for your parents
and their parents too.
For children
who should learn from the different
looking, speaking, believing ‘other’
whose kindness exists despite
being quarantined on planes before arriving to your lands,
despite being interrogated and segregated in queues at the airport
for your precious safety.
Stay safe, with truths that bloom from kindness.
from being chased out of cities.
For the empathy every child dangles
in their mother’s eyes as hope.
For a future where the ‘other’ challenges every fear
we unlearn and accept to grow from.
One day you too will face that same floor
you pressed a man’s face against before you handcuffed him.
You too, will cry futile tears to keep living.
The diference is your dignity
will never know cages
and days without showering
will never know the shame
of running from a place
you are forced to return to
because you weren’t born disposable.
If you feel threatened about living in a country
full of sleek, dark and beautiful bodies
arriving on boats smiling and glowing
though nobody has welcomed them,
stop watching the news.
This poem is for you,
for your parents
and their parents too.
For children
who should learn from the different
looking, speaking, believing ‘other’
whose kindness exists despite
being quarantined on planes before arriving to your lands,
despite being interrogated and segregated in queues at the airport
for your precious safety.
Stay safe, with truths that bloom from kindness.
K. Eltinaé is a Sudanese poet of Nubian descent. His work has been translated into Arabic, Greek, Farsi, French and Spanish. His work has appeared in The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human: Many Muslim Worlds (Penguin) and The African American Review, among others. He is the winner of The 2019 Beverly Prize for International Literature (Eyewear Publishing) and co-winner of the 2019 Dignity Not Detention Prize (Poetry International).
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