Fair Play

Just be a good little Arab 
Palestinian? What’s that? 
Be a good little Arab; do what the nice white man is telling you to do 
Just be a good little Arab
And we’ll make sure to spare you 
That’s what they tell us day and night on the news 

But what they won’t tell you is that even when we take their word for it
Heed their warnings stamped on sheets of paper dropped generously on us from the skies 
(While they simultaneously deprive us of everything we need to stay alive)
Even when we play 
By the intricate rules they lay 
On the sadistic game board they paint 
Beneath our feet 
We still lose
Every time 
And there is no finish line 

We anxiously await for the world to awake 
To realize that the game is rigged 
And that the nice white man lied 
But too many can’t seem to see beyond the shine of his fair hair and the twinkle of his blue eyes 

So we trip over our feet 
Scrambling to find a third option – 
Hurtling through fiery rings of uncertainty
Trying to move fast enough to dodge the terror aimed at us even in our sickness, 
Even in our sleep 
Targeting our houses of God, 
Targeting our fleeing feet 

Playing probability mind games to pick the safest place to hide, 
Theoretically,
Pretending we don’t know that in reality,
Nobody escapes the crosshairs of the colonizer, 
Who won’t sleep
Until we cease 
To exist 

Just be a good little Arab
They say
After all, don’t you want us to spare you? 
Be a good little Arab, 
Don’t dream of independence 
Or safety 
You don’t look like us, do you?

Just be a good little Arab 
You’re not a terrorist, now, are you? 
Don’t go demanding  justice
Or freedom
You’re not white like us, remember? 
How could you?