Orientalism

By Fatima Bukhari 

Silk Falls off my head

They want to see what’s underneath

Silhouette, nothing here to see

Just a woman, let her be

Through their eyes is a telescope

Their minds go ecstatic, they cannot fathom

That there is nothing to see

I am a prize for you to be won

Your paper skin, it can be shaded in 

Only if you want it to be

I’m too different, you have power now

Some shades darker under your submission

You can’t cease your urges

I control the animal inside

I am uncivilised?

You let it control you, keeping it up

Beware of your kind

For we are the ones you seek to be

And so, you take everything from us
Relentlessly