I cause concern

Make heads turn

While all my heart can do is yearn

For you to understand

That this was God’s command

Not some man’s demand

And that

This life in the hood

Is a choice

Misunderstood

By society

My choice of piety

 

And I keep trying to explain

But instead you listen

To the media’s disdain

To their lies

Of why I cry

But please open your

Ears and hear my fears

 

I fear that the world will forever see me

As a brainwashed

Caged

Deranged

Enslaved

Illiterate

Uneducated

Futile

And that I fear

My own beauty

My own sexuality

My own country

And

Even men in my own family

When in reality

I am only caged by misconceptions

So let me make some corrections

 

 

 

My hijab

This towel

Turban thing

My hood

Has brought me nothing

But good

 

 

And

I was born in

Grew up in

And was educated

in America

So this is my country

How can you say

That I am not liberated?

And yes

I speak

Read

and write

In my first and only fluent language

English

And as for my beauty

It is in my heart

And when a man sees this

From me he’ll never part

 

And when I watch the women

Excuse me “sex objects”

On tv

Magazines

Sitting right next to me

I sigh

If only she knew

How she’s being abused

How she doesn’t need to take

A million selfies

Hashtag I’m so ugly

Because you see

She’s beautiful

And she doesn’t have to be

50 pounds and

10 feet tall

or buy everything at the mall

But she believes

That she does

Because that’s what she is told

By the media

By which society is controlled

 

While I am satisfied

With simplicity

When people can’t judge the shape of my body

The essence of my outer beauty

Or what they think is ugly

While I choose

The path of my life

Freely

Willfully

The choice of

Being a hidden gem

The one the media will condemn

Because quite frankly

I can’t give them much of my money

Sell them my sexuality

Because

All I really have

Is my dignity