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My 9/11

That day
in the simmering
cloud of dust.
When the images
of the crumbling towers
inundated your TV screens.
I sat in silence,
sharing your pain and
feeling ashamed of
my brownness.

That day
when you looked at me
with the assumptions,
you wondered,
do I come from
the Middle East?
You tried to decipher
my accent.
My brown body
evoking your suspicion.

That day
when you walked in
anger and declared
your Operation Freedom
to hunt down
the terror.
At home and abroad
My brown body
became marked once more.

That day
How could I forget.
When you declared
your commitment
to make a hole
in the place of Afghanistan.
I shivered in pain
knowing that many
brown bodies
like mine,
Will pay the price.

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