And all I did was plain ignore
A slam poetry competition with the topic “Sex” was announced in October. It was called the “Sextober slam”. This is the poem that won me first place. (All incidences are imaginary. My dad is a nice guy)
I sit down to watch some TV in the hall
My mom is watching me, standing by the wall
One by one through the channels I crawl
Just the usual stuff… action, news, sports and all
Suddenly, I turn right, it’s my dad sitting.
Hefty, stern and tall
I immediately turn back to the TV
Ah, But, it’s too late.
Two lovers kissing with passion in a bedroom,
One is undressing the other.
“Change it” I hear a scream, It’s my mother.
“The shit you watch” a judgment from my father.
A silent one with many another.
Click!, I change the channel in a snap
But of what I watch when they are not around, haha..
I wondered what my dad would think
haha…
Of Lesbian, Anal and of Kink
Now on TV, It’s a housewife crying tears, and then there is a hard slap.
They never change.
All these serials, I wondered all the tears.
A day ago, it was my mother’s own,
A slap from my dad, like thunder
For a small little blunder.
She cried till her eyes went sour
The TV justified the tears a little more,
All we did was plain ignore.
Click!
The news showed 21 people dead.
Footage of bodies in a bomb blast.
My father says “All these Muslim bastards. Better to kill them all”
I thought of my best friend, no a brother. He was Muslim.
The TV confirmed my dad’s biases a little more,
All we did was plain ignore.
Click!
A scantily dressed woman dancing in the rain
With another guy who hardly looks sane.
Shots of her breasts, her cleavage, then she gets more wet.
She is shown as a collection of her exotic body parts
No one really knew she was a master of arts.
Or the mother of 2.
The TV objectified her a little more
All we did was plain ignore.
Click!
A religious man dressed in all black talks with a deep voice
He says getting rid of all your debts and disease is a choice
“We have all sinned. To donate to this channel, is the only redemption deed’
It wasn’t the creed driving him, It was greed.
We listened to his scam a little more
All we did was plain ignore
Flick! Back to the channel that once was.
Two lovers lying with one another.
Smiling at each other.
And there was nothing complicated
Just two people who liked each other.
Very different from the gigabytes of porn
They were naked true, but that’s how they were born.
There was something more, a sense of passion
Unlike those videos where pieces of meat just move in a rhythmic fashion
No mistrust, no hate, No greed,
No creed, No race, No misdeed.
If I had I son I promised, I would tell him the difference between love and lust
That I would not stay silent, that’s unjust
That sex is just an expression that makes us human.
That sex is nothing like those videos with fake moans.
That sex is respecting your lover for who she is.
And accepting her for her imperfections same as she accepts his.
The sex when safe is nothing to be ashamed of.
The lovers on TV kissed once more
We ignored the violence, the hate, and greed that they broadcast
But somehow a display of love made us felt like an outcast
We could see ourselves as victims, as killers, as perverts.
But had we forgotten to see ourselves as lovers?
My dad grew restless as he changed the channel again
From watching this crap, he said he would abstain
Late that night I borrow my father’s laptop
I see browsing histories were deleted a little more
All I did was plain ignore.
