Introducing a new series of poems by Julian Matthews. Julian is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet published in The American Journal of Poetry, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Borderless Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Dream Catcher Magazine, Live Encounters Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and The New Verse News, among others. He is a mixed-race minority from Malaysia and lived in Ipoh for seven years. Currently based in Petaling Jaya, he is a media trainer and consultant for senior management of multinationals on Effective Media Relations, Social Media and Crisis Communications. He was formerly a journalist with The Star and Nikkei Business Publications Inc
Link: https://linktr.ee/julianmatthews
By Julian Matthews
Please, please vaccinate me from your xenophobia
Your casual labelling of the “China” virus and ethnophaulisms
As if a virus recognises your nationalism
As if a vaccine can tell your exceptionalism from your patriotism
Please immunise me from your discrimination
Give it to me once in the arm, another in the bum
As if my mooning can cause you religious harm
As if this eastern sun can just eclipse and come undone
Please, please inject me against your unconscious racism
Purge me of your prescribed prejudice and toss it in a bin
As if this melanin was oh-so-paper-thin
As if it could be washed off like your undocumented sins
Please inoculate me from your excused ignorance
Save me from all this factored-in fake tolerance
As if my code-switching didn’t just multiply your dominance
As if your divide-and-rule could subtract my existence
Please, please puncture my skin and go further in
Push through your other-ing and go deeper within
As if ridding the world of this one scourge, will make us treat each other
equally like human beings
As if we will ever acknowledge we are both the virus and the vaccine
First published in Wordsfest QuaranZine magazine, Canada.
