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What the Brown Girl Wants
The brown girl wants not to be seen
but heard.
She wants her voice to travel the seven continents of the world
Speaking of beauty and justice.
The brown girl wants a voice.
The brown girl doesn’t want to--
Do math, study science
get into the medical field,
Become a caged pharmacist
Like her mother suggests.
The brown girl wants to speak her feelings.
The brown girl doesn’t want to let her parents down.
But report cards are her tickets to trouble
Because numbers and graphs
equations and maps
just won’t do for the brown girl.
The brown girl just doesn’t know
what to do anymore.
The brown girl wants no labels.
The color of her skin
doesn’t need to be associated with curry.
She doesn’t need to be called Desi
Just because she’s an Indian.
She just wants you to say her name
with a meaning
Her name means good qualities
So whether you whisper her name, or shout it
Say her name carefully like it’s a prized jewel
The brown girl
Wants to sit by her window
And stare at the sky
Darkening
As the sun says goodbye
And the stars glisten lighting up the night
The brown girl wants to write poetry under the moon.
The brown girl wants a little sun
she wants to go to the park with her friends,
And laugh with them till she gets abs
Get her hands sticky while
melted drops of ice cream are falling down her chin
Swing till her hands bleed
From grasping the chains to stop herself from falling
She wants to go for morning walks
And hear the silent sounds of no traffic
While the wind caresses her cheeks
Making them blush red from the cold
She wants her mother to stop worrying
About the bad boys smoking down her street.
She wants her mother to stop worrying that someone might spit swear words in her face
When going
somewhere
She wants her mother
To stop
Worrying.
The brown girl wants a little space to sprout,
A little time to think,
The brown girl wants to be somebody
She doesn’t want to be just the “brown girl”
She wants to be a poet
She wants to be an inspiration
Grow up,
and help kids get outta the ghetto.
She wants to expand on her inner creativity
Give her an brush, and she’ll paint you a city
Give her a pen, she’ll write you a poem
The brown girl wants to fly
She wants to escape the cage of chaos
Escape the expectations and rules
And fly towards the illusions
that put her to sleep at night
Of hopes & dreams and everything more