white woman (crocodile) tears

By Olivia Shen

Crocodile tears is a phrase that refers to a false display of emotions, specifically sadness or grief. The term is derived from the phenomenon of crocodiles crying whilst consuming prey.

white woman tears and crocodile tears are one in the same
when tear-stained cheeks cry only for bloody murder

the crocodile
wades in the water with jaws snap that cut through my sinews and snaps my bones
her gluttony powers her cruelty which smears the water with my red
but when i look, she looks, he looks, they look, the world looks… she cries,
weeping through her fleshy swallows and crimson teeth, she mourns,
tear after tear as she devours and weeps me
her tears fall, marbleizing the blood stained waters

her appetite is satiated (for now)
her strikes will subdue (she sinks back into the water)
her tears will dry (the water is settling)
(and her cruelty which shaped my mutilation is hidden in her stomach, my pain has dissipated into the heat of the air, my echoing cries smothered)

so it is quiet, because she has been fed, but in death i smile
because the water will always be tainted pink

and when the water calms, she is crocodile woman.

Process

I was inspired to write this poem after a lesson about racism during my AP U.S. History class. We learned about how the Tulsa Race Massacre was incited after a white woman falsely accused a Black teenager of sexual assault. I was reminded of how the weaponization of white women’s fragility for the purpose of upholding racism is akin to that of crocodile tears, a.k.a. falsified grief.