Poet of the Week: Seevana Raghubeer

Recipe for disaster (DO NOT try)

If you wish to be exotic,
Let me tell you the recipe for sweet success
Take a multitude of colonialism
As much as you have and probably more than you can carry
Scatter it all over your family’s history
Spoon feed your babies and children and teenagers,
A history that dictates brown folk to be enemy of the state
Take care not to miss a single generation, lest they be forgotten
Slip in words like dangerous, recessive, uneducated
Label the men terrorists, shopkeepers, taxi drivers
Pour the women into mainstream media as enticing, provocative and something new to try
Bury this deep into your core, your ancestry and knead it into society so you can fight every day to prove your worth
Grab fistfuls of micro aggressions about your hair, your skin, your size and stir in self-esteem that took years to build
Spread lies that racism is not real and women of colour are not marginalised
Sprinkle with gold and serve with a smile

This recipe usually takes years to prepare and will never ever be finished.