"Oh Man."

The way my name rolls off the tip of your tongue

is a siren's call of ignorance and otherness
and frankly a whole lot of strange...
If I am running, it is not that I ran
but that I am fearful of your fear of her body, her hijab.
If I somehow racked up points to justify
the betrayal of, "but no, where are you really from?"
it is not that he racks, but that we don't know how...
We just don't know how to place this on some shelf, 
a conversation tabled for a more appropriate time
or what you're really trying to say is country, right?
Oh man, is she angry now but you don't know the depth 
to my anxiety over my Pakistani family's safety. 
Oh man, is she angry now but you don't know the depth 
to my anxiety over the racism of the family that 
looks like me, talks like me, but speaks a foreign language
of "you're not welcome here" and "get out of my country."
As if it is theirs and they didn't steal it from someone else
through the harm of others, through their dull ignorance. 
The next time you dare to roll syllables and names
off the piercing tip of a poisoned tongue
do it correctly, oh man, and say Oman.