Anti-harassment stencil graffiti by Keizer. The legend reads “Check yourself before we check you”. Source: tavaana.org
The men of this city make animal
sounds as if to say
I got a slaughter with your neck
on it now how
you gonna walk with your psst-psst hidden
all your psst-psst hiding
from me
and my tick-tick pointing
pants how now you gonna walk two-legged
with my panting your
stiff sniffable neck and my smick-smack with my
bone back watching—
kareem they don’t look at me like they want to
fuck me they look at me like they want to kill me
—I’ve started crossing my arms in the June
street despite the bzzz-bzzz
swarming slick my thighs their sticky
the ick between my licky tits
this injury tailing me at eyelevel
this maleness tonguing thick—this arm
-crossing is not armor
kareem not a keeping or a steeling
not even theoretically protective—strict
apologetic—
oh tell them you braided my hair while I slept
don’t they know I have been loved in Arabic?
