Ten Thoughts From A Colonized Mind
“The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
by Oliver Khan
I must justify my existence.
I am ugly.
I have misplaced the new moon.
I let my child cry–he wails, stands, mouth wide, biting
into the dark. The presumption of
innocence does not apply to us.
In my name
is the conquest and vanquish of my people.
I surrender.
I permit the extraction of my talent
in service of the colonizer.
I read Majnun and Laila
in English and I
identify with the animals pulling
Qais back with tongues & paws from the
isthmus of death. Come back Qais come back.
I just need you to speak her name one more time.
Oliver Khan is a Muslim writer of Pakistani origin who was raised in the American Midwest. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh in 2005. His poems have appeared in The Dewdrop, the Chicago Reader, Gargoyle, and elsewhere. He practices law and lives in Illinois with his family.
