Gay Pride 2015

Posted on May 28, 2015 Updated on June 9, 2015

My kolapuri is not tough enough to walk this

Mile-long march of rainbows and glitter and flamboyant-oriental dances

It gets stuck now and then, in the rubble of the Nepali dust where

Brown women’s feet and breasts are crushed into one mouth-shaped organ that screams

Through the slabs of sharp concrete and earth-smelling darkness

To their children as the rainbow hoisting men adopt brown babies

Oh so very nicely

(and his still-burning cigarette slips through the cracks of concrete into the open mouth of a rubble-mother)

Go on, save my brown baby and leave my feet camouflaged in the debris

Make scarves and saris out of your rainbow flags, make rainbow fags out of my bruised tongue

—go on, steal the colors

Of this kolapuri.

My baby is covered in a white blanket to blend into the

arms of a macho gay man and you all sing

You sing praises for him while I moan elegies for my baby, lived and saved.

My kolapuri has all the glitter and shine and dance that you

Profit from oh so very nicely

But you– you do not see these intricate sequins sewed on Sindhi cloth,

The multiple hues of vegetable dyes painted on the

worn out soles that bear the weight of baby and mother,

These are the wrong kind of colors for your pride.