you take a trip

an exotic vacation
on the accents & colors of a divided nation
on the lost stories
of the people you left
with false freedoms & injustice to heft
on their backs every day
as you continue to look this way

with your western gaze
feeding off a culture
of the silently oppressed
like the eyes of a vulture

seeing our skin as a sin
but our lips as a journey
yet in a court of law we get no real attorney
because the shot has been fired
before the bang of the gavel

and as you use us to travel
our lives unravel

lost in the oceans

lost in the haze

lost in the lust of your western gaze

Trisha Dey