Peace Poem 

I am a walking contradiction
A girl on a mission
To balance clashing cultures
To cultivate traditions
Non-fiction
Cause I’m juxtaposition
I am the melting pot of Chicago
Meshed with Indian customs
And Islamic faith
Cultures
Thrown in the blender
Making a smoothie of diversity
Adapting to the Westernized Civilization
With my converse, jeans, hoodie, hijab
From headphones in ears
To Harry Potter marathons
In between salat making dua
The prophet Muhammad once said to a companion
“You are not better than people of other races unless you excel them in piety”
Yet I’m not even accepted in my own society.
I can’t live freely when people look at me
In my abaya like I have a abnormality
This imaginary line of inequality
This imparity of no diversity
Makes me feel like I never belonged
But I have a voice.
And the courage to use it
I’m not a terrorist terrifying towns
I don’t come to concoct cacophonies
But write poetry, spawn similes
Make lyrical lines of rhymes
Play with personification
Mess with metaphors
Use proper grammar
No “lol-ing”
I read books, don’t blow off bombs
I’m mayhem to the mic
Launching rhymes not rockets
I come to this place in peace as a poet
Islam means peace
So I practice peace through poetry
I say “Asalam-alaikum” –peace is upon you
I come to this place in peace to practice my prayers
I practice peace by performing
Meddling with the mic
To spread the word to the world
Putting it from pen to paper
Here you can live life with “liberty”
You have the right to practice “religiously”
Muslims strangers in their own communities
So we keep fighting
Fighting by writing it all out on paper
Fighting by stampeding stereotypes
Fighting by spreading the word on this stage
Reading the words off my pissed of page
As this slam society welcomes me with open arms
To hear my side of the story
My mother came to this place in peace
She brought me here to attain ambitions
Education in India was feasted on
Like Americans feast on chicken legs and pasta
On super bowl nights
Where handicapped poor are crawling through the streets
Not wanting more
But just enough to feed a family of four
My mother brought me here
Thinking I’ll grow up being someone “dynamic”
But I’m not planning to be a Indian-fob-doctor-wannabe
In the land of the free
Nor a rich scientist
Nor a mathematician
Just cause I’m Asian
Cause really.
I suck in math.
So I write.
As my tear filled, ink stained paper fills up
With words like rain filling puddles
I write.
Speaking out for all those voiceless Muslims
Who have been wronged
Who never felt like they belonged
I write.
Practicing peace.
I write.
I am a walking contradiction.
A girl on a mission
I come to this stage in peace to perform my piece.
To balance clashing cultures.
To cultivate tradition, non-fiction
Cause I’m juxtaposition.
I mean no harm… Just peace.