Punishment

Dissected, chopped and carved, like a butcher’s plaything,

My mind, whitewashed or otherwise drugged 

to the depths of a world gagged, fucked and then forgotten.

I am repeatedly punished everywhere I reside. 

In every dream I embrace, constantly running, 

constantly yearning for wings to sweep me off my feet, 

to take me to the heavens so highly praised.

Punished,

for engaging in materialism and

for my poverty.

for neglecting my tribal name, only 

for it to be butchered when I don’t.

for my eloquence and my limited literacy, 

for my foreign accent, even when 

foreignness is relatively defined. 

For leaving my motherland, by my motherland, 

for wanting to live, and for wanting to die.