What’s in a name?
It was ok for him to spew such
Nonsense in the 17th century.
Little did he know that one day
Everything would be in a name.
A name could decide if
You are us or them
You get a place to stay or not
You can settle in some place or not
You get arrested more easily
You will get interview calls or not
Add color of skin and
Some outward manifestation of your faith
The vitriol gets ratcheted a thousandfold.
Add a gender
It worsens by another thousand.
Stay neutral and you are
A traitor for one and
A wannabe for the other.
Get aggressive
You get slotted into any
Convenient stereotype.
Give up and
You are a loser.
Write about it and you are an
Armchair critic.
Wish for a just world
A la Imagine by Lennon
You are a dreamer or
You end up like Lennon.
Or a Gandhi.
Or a King.
Or a Gauri.
The hatred and the othering
Had gone on for too long.
Something etched in stone
Is not rubbed away by an eraser.
The slime that is covering the world
Can’t be hosed away by gentle streams.
We need a reset
Hope we perform better in the next round.
NASA – could you send a 2nd DART
This time to direct a meteor TOWARDS the earth!
