THA ORANGE JACK. (&i’m not saying whites are orange lol)
i’m grateful for europe
you’ll probably scoff at me rn
«there’s nothing great about great britain»
but would you rather be anything else
remember your everyday is someone else’s dream life
&maybe the flaws are embedded in the netherlands’ history
&maybe the flaws are embedded in britain’s headlines
but i know how lucky i am
i don’t care what you say
how could you take benefits
&cuss the same government who gave that to you
tell me,
could your own country do better?
the country that you ran away from
&swam away from,
could they do a lot better than the country you’re in now
remember something here
listen carefully my friend.
you crossed borders
&checkpoints
you hoped you wouldn’t lose your family as you boarded these trucks
&boats
you walked around the borders,
between the mountains
crossed the sea,
past sharks
&aqueous darkness
do you remember how much you feared getting scammed?
how much you feared your money would vanish before you made it halfway?
how much you feared getting separated from your family?
how much you feared rape?
how much you feared drowning?
could your government back home do better when the war you fled from was caused by that same government?
in fact,
did benefits exist in the place you came from before?
i was born in europe
&here,
benefits are never something to be proud of
but you gotta lower your pride
in europe,
family is looked at as emotional support
but in africa,
if they say
‘my family mean everything to me’
take it literally
add financial support to that list too
benefits are never something to be proud of
but you act proud,
don’t you?
you weren’t above these people when you were ducking around their borders
joblessness in other countries meant potential homelessness,
prostitution
drug dealing
&organ trafficking
&guess what feminists?
it was worse depending on your gender.
8 years of living in africa made me look at britain
&the netherlands
w/new eyes
&i was always grateful
but my grateful is greater
i can’t believe i used to be ashamed of that once upon a time
in britain,
everyone always hates the prime minister
we loved america’s first black president
but whatever he did didn’t effect our lives in any way
i couldn’t believe i lived in europe all this time
all the things i presumed normal
was something someone in another country would think was heavenly
even free education,
ffs
even chicken
&chips was elite in africa
ffs
the dutch are hardly proud to be dutch
even the brits
but all of that would change if they lived abroad for a bit
