Evil at the Airport

I sit here at the airport, past security
Breathing more lightly than 5 minutes ago,
When I was stressed and tired.
But now I am tired, but my stress is gone.
And it does seem so trivial, the whole thing
Of feeling stressed at the airport:
Why I must fear, at the airport, being singled out
Because of my conscience, and not even that
But because my appearance resembles someone who holds
A conscience that is shunned at the airport,
A conscience that is dangerous at the airport,
A conscience that turns me evil at the airport
But I am not evil:
I am in fact a human, who wants to travel overseas and visit
What I call home: the land where my ancestry runs deeper
Than the oceans over which we travel.
Yet nevertheless I must fear that I may be detained
Because someone fears that I may detain them,
With my conscience,
My “evil” conscience.
But my conscience does not detain them
It is indeed their actions which detain me,
And release my conscience, at the airport.
And make me feel evil, at the airport.
And make me think evil, at the airport.
And make me act evil, at the airport.
So maybe they should detain me after all
And prevent my conscience from contaminating this airport
For maybe I am evil after all
And so maybe, because I am evil, I do not deserve to be at peace,
And I do not deserve to be peaceful
Hence out of their irrational fear of me being evil,
They have rationally turned me into just that: Evil.

-Isaac Kassis