Inspired by Mshairi’s poetry and MentalAcrobatics’ lyric swapping skills and with apologies to Grace Nichols for altering the text of her poem Of Course When They Ask for Poems About the ‘Realities’ of Black Women, I join fellow bloggers in the google-bombing for Alaa campaign.
Of Course When They Ask
for Poems About the ‘Realities’
of Egypt….
What they really want
at times
is a specimen
of an Egyptian king encased in a British museum
Egyptian hieroglyphics
etched on Egyptian pyramids
guarded by Egyptian Sphinxes
they want an Egyptian body
swaddled in white robes and mummified
and validation
for the stereotype
already in their heads
Or else they want
celluloid myths
of a white Cleopatra
I can say I can write
no poem big enough
to hold the essence
of Egypt
or an Egyptian woman
or an Egyptian man
Maybe this poem is to say,
that I like to see
all Egyptians
free and unafraid to blog
Typing away
with each stroke of the keyboard
the twisted self-negating
history
they’ve inherited
Typing away
with each stroke of the keyboard
technorati tag: googlebombingforalaa
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mshairi says
Hey thanks!
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uaridi says
Well done Ms, it will take me a whole year to come up with something like this (moan, moan, moan, wivu, wivu, wivu)
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Mentalacrobatics says
Had not heard of the orginal poem before, your altered version is very good. It is brilliant to see us moblizing together.
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Mary (Demoblogger) says
This poem is so beautiful I blogged about it on the official Free Alaa blog.
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ginan rauf says
Wonderful poem!!!!
Ginan