When Hate Goes Viral
When hatred goes viral
be careful.
Your words come back to bite swift.
And hard enough to draw blood.
The hijab -
“Inappropriate in a blended society”.
Strangers yanking them off on trains.
“Fit our mold”—don’t be independent.
“Oh, they hide your face”.
Now we all scramble to find and don masks;
what we complained about is now our utmost wish.
Looking at the color of skin
and blaming another’s nationality or race,
for your fear of a virus which shows no bias.
Open attacks on the metro.
The Japanese bow we joked about
is now the safest way to greet - in distance.
My islander chin lift and raised eyebrow greeting rehabilitated.
The handshake and the ability to crush bones in hands.
The bully has been distanced in its loss.
No hugs - no urge towards touch’s physicality.
We now grasp at cultures “of distance”.
Drowning in our proximity of “compliance in diversity”.
Instead of “be one of us,” let us all stand apart and away.
Your entire day has become your first random act of sex;
touch nothing, cover everything, hurry and leave.
Gauze, latex and sanitizer are now the holy trinity.
Wash your hands till taps run dry.
Bleach is as seductive as Chanel No. 5.
Things we held dear
are demonized.
Generosity to the extreme
has been replaced
with petty hoarding
and profiteering.
Something as slightly evolved as a virus,
has ruined in a half year as much as we built up
in a century.
When hate goes viral,
where are we?