EMPOWER Malaysia organised a writing competition for aspiring writers with the theme “YOUth of Tomorrow”. This is one of the top entries in the poems category, written by Kasthury Paramiswaran.
Salam,
Anbudey, oru citizen,
I am the outcast you included in your Lawan.
I am the saree clad brown girl,
Made in Malaysia, unknown to the world.
Thank you for your initiative.
But where is your voice for those silenced and denounced?
You ask for change in leadership, but I ask for the rent to the PPR lowered.
You do not reply. Is it you malas nak balas?
I am glad you are the token Indian,
Walking, side by side,
Up in arms, with Bumiputeras.
The anarchist born out of circumstance.
But where are the dark skinned Indians? Why are they not here?
In a walk filled by the opposition, I have fallen pawn to your ways.
The melanin lacking in Parliament, lacks on our skins.
Are you paid for this? Is your grass greener since you painted the town black?
All I ask is, you break the piece of pie,
For all to eat.
The party in power, serves us crumbs
After their 5-course meals.
I do not ask for yelae sapadu.
All I ask, is rasam and rice.
While I crossed 3 generations to get here,
To the middle of this ladder,
You were born upper caste, upper class.
Sedar la, keperitanku.
Don’t care for the feelings of the majority,
When the minorities have blood flowing like the Klang River.
Have you seen the river recently?
It is as dusky as the skin of our brothers,
held behind bars.
It is as dirty, as the walls that run the PPR flats.
It is filled with more stories to tell,
than the kids sleeping away in their dark rooms.
2 years of their lives lost, amongst the 7 siblings they share
2 years of their time spared, amongst the other child their mother
disappointedly birthed, while their father forced her.
I am just your average citizen.
While you reinstate education for the impoverished,
Can sex education be relinquished?
The women slaving away at the bottom 40, have much to worry.
Their bodies used, their minds stolen, their soul lost.
Will you care for them?
Their existence, is the resistance you marched for.
Share the table, move from permission to petition.
Take away the Indian women’s need to submission,
Let us live our ambition.
While the y to your x, defines you,
Does the y explain why you snuff out the light
Because she shines bright-
Brighter than you
An equal to you.
And When you’re about lose it, it’s time
For you to use it-the privilege of your Y.
Come be an ally, and dare to defy.
The age old need for old men to take seats,
discussing solutions for young needs.
Even without entitlement,
us Non-men were born with vigour.
Survive we will, and thrive all the more still!
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