This poem is a guest post by Tahera Rahman.
If I Die
If I die, would you ask why?
If I were beaten to a pulp on the side of the road?
If I were choked to death?
If I were shot in my home, would you pursue justice in my name?
Would you picket in the streets, march to beats,
Would you treat my life like more than just a game?
If I die, would you ask why?
Would you wipe my children’s tears?
Care for my parents?
Assuage my community’s fears?
Would you remember to help the people I tried to help?
If I die, would you assess my pigment count before you decided to care?
Would you envision my fear as I looked into my killer’s eyes?
Would you unite to say, “Cross us again, if you dare”?
Would you voice the thoughts I never had a chance to say?
We die, but does anything change?
We die, but does anyone else ask why?
Tahera Rahman is a journalist, cookie monster and on-again-off-again fitness freak who suffers from chronic restlessness due to an irreparable case of the travel bug. She is the producer and a host at Radio Islam, the nation’s first daily, live call-in talk radio show produced by Muslims for the mainstream market.