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❝I slip in and out of consciousness like silver lights eluding the womb of the aquatic oceans,
I fear to speak, my lips forever sealed, my tears forever blinked back, judgment hangs like a pungent odour in my classroom,
People clash and clamour for their perspectives, washing out each other, discourses spinning on and melting like cigarette smoke,
I feel I do not belong— I fear loud voices, I fear people bearing down their "opinions" on me,
I fear people's myopic outlooks, I fear people and their grandiloquent phrases, I fear people anchored to their own voices, unable to flow on the billows of variegated voices,
I fear people who dismiss me at a single glance, I fear people who pound their voices, higher and higher until they claim the space, until it floods into every ear, until it hardens every word into needles and icicles, into sickles,
I fear people who are full of "political correctness" and have no empathy.
I fear people who ionately critique and frame meticulous arguments about the marginalised,
Pay lakhs to get their voices heard on coloniser platforms, present their anger spectacularly in elite conferences,
And yet will look away when the same scholars from marginalised communities do not have the funds to publish their research,
They will keep mum when asked about what kinds of provisions, financial aids and funds are provided to those of us who cannot sit here.
They will profit off of our backs, they will "theorise" on our blood and sweat but never allow us to step into their institutions.
They will live among us to "observe" our behaviour for their "field work" but will not us on the streets, will not stand by us when the police spray us with tear gas.
The next day, they will pen research articles and showcase the geotagged pictures of our corpses,
They will condemn these acts of violence behind a paywall, they will condemn our deaths within the establishments of our oppressors,
They will say, "We are helpless."
They will research those of us who are nameless, or dead and trending on X (or should I say Twitter just to spite a fascist?).
They will conduct workshops on neurodiversity, orientations on mental health but never reduce the workload or tailor it for a disabled student,
They will lecture on postmodernism and slip in fatophobic jokes for the laughs,
They will hide a smug smile behind jargon and wield it like an intellectual shield,
They will construct departments out of our struggles but drive past us on the roads,
Beware for they are the ones residing in "The Temples of knowledge."
Beware because they are our educators.
Beware because they are the "brains of our glorified nation." ❞
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Comments (2)
Well worded! Love poetry like this
Thank you!🩷