Annotated the Sides

 by Hannah Janicke

You may feel powerful

Sitting atop your throne of 

Male-White-Christian 

Separateness

But I’ve been blessed with 

The ability to see what you are too

Scared to see

“The Muslims are terrorists, they 

Burn Christians. The Quran is evil.

Muslims pray to the east and west- 

Their false God.”

I’ve been born into Islamophobia, yet 

I saw through it when I was young.

Naturally, curiously,

I ordered an English Quran 

Online, to learn about this religion 

When my fathers lips 

spew out hatred,

I see a demon 

Caressing his soul

While he gets indignant,

I watch a demon

Cloak his body in a suit 

and veil his eyes so that

He can no longer see 

Anything other than

what’s in his mind

I offer to loan him my Quran 

So he can see that

Muslims and Christians are quite

Alike actually, I even 

Highlighted the passages of peace

With this,

He flew into a rage,

“Why have you read the Quran 

Page for page but you 

Have not read the Bible 

Front to back?”

Calmly responding to his attack,

I said, “Actually, I have. Many times,

and I even annotated the sides.”

He doesn’t see through 

the opaque veil 

Over his eyes

When you’re busy pointing out 

A speck in your brother’s eye,

You don’t even realize

That you too have

A bigger one in yours