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Booking Khan Singh Kumar
by Daljit Nagra
Booking Khan Singh Kumar - Daljit Nagra
When I first started publishing and performing my poems, I used to use the name Khan Singh Kumar, which is an assimilation of three religions of India.
Booking Khan Singh Kumar
Must I wear only masks that don’t sit for a Brit
Would you blush if I stripped from my native skin
Should I beat on my chest I’m a ghetto poet
Who discorded his kind as they couldn’t know it
Should I foot it featly as a Punjab in Punglish
Sold on an island wrecked by the British
Did you make me for the gap in the market
Did I make me for the gap in the market
Does it feel good in the gap in the market
Does it feel gooey in the gap in the market…
Will I flame on the tree that your canon has stoked
Will I thistle at the bole where a bull-dog cocked
Should I talk with the chalk of my white inside
On the board of my minstrel-blacked outside
Should I bleach my bile-name or mash it to a stink
Should I read for you straight or Gunga Din this gig
Did you make me for the gap in the market
Did I make me for the gap in the market
Do I need to be good in the gap in the market
Do I need to be gooey in the gap in the market…
As I’ve worn a sari bride and an English rose
Can I cream off awards from your melting-pot phase
Do you medal yourself when you meddle with my type
If I go up di spectrum how far can ju dye
More than your shell-like, your clack applause
What bothers me is whether you’ll boo me if I balls
Out of Indian!
from Look We Have Coming To Dover! (Faber & Faber, 2007), © Daljit Nagra 2007, used by permission of the author and publisher; Recording from the audio CD Look We Have Coming To Dover! (Faber & Faber, 2008)