The people started marching
they came from everywhere
Armed with words of freedom
revolution in the air
They joined in every corner
across their precious land
They all agreed the time had come
they had to take a stand
The country was divided
and teetered on the edge
Of losing its democracy
betraying its own pledge
It used to be a beacon
an oasis in the sand
Desired by so many
its shores a freedom land
But tyranny had taken hold
at stake, democracy
People knew intangibles
never came for free
And so from many, there was one
it was the day and hour
They came to show the watching world
the people have the power
I look at the world
With sleepy eyes, half awake, half asleep
And this is what I see:
A small urban village
Of many races
Where every home is fenced
Guarded like a quarantined home.
I check with my mind
And this is what I find:
Emotions coated in hatred
A lonely soul shielded by selfishness
Then I realize
The change I seek
Begins here
In my
own mind.
Ten long years in jail for petty theft at a bus stop,
While leaders steal in billions with a wrist-slap.
A man wore the hangman’s noose for armed robbery,
Yet a governor earned honours for a pen robbery.
Citizens bled by taxes to please Bretton Woods,
Loans secured not for growth but to fatten pockets.
When the people protest, police scatter them with contempt,
And soldiers fire bullets to silence their voices.
Black ink scrawls draconian laws on tyrant’s tables,
Threats and punishments stitched to entrench their power.
But such laws befriend only ephemerality,
Before the masses seize the reins of their rulers’ reign.
Mass anger drove Rajapaksa out of Sri Lanka,
Gen Z rose in Nepal against a media ban.
Burkina Faso’s streets toppled Compaoré,
And Egypt’s squares forced Mubarak to resign.
The people’s voice will always drown draconian laws;
Chains that glitter at first soon corrode into rust.
The rulers may feast while the nation starves in silence,
But shackles will break—the storm leaves none untouched.
They crowd around their leader
unqualified, unfit
Vying for some action
all chomping at the bit
They’ve given-up democracy
their morals are all gone
Instead they honor Donald Trump
a two-bit, traitor con
They don’t want an America
with those who aren’t White
They’d rather burn it to the ground
and threaten that they might
They’re homophobic bigots
and condemn those who are trans
Scared of life, scared of love
they punish them with bans
Like preachers, they quote scripture
hang crosses from their chains
But then deport small children
far away, alone, on planes
The MAGA base is poisoned
hating all that’s not the same
Then praise an unfit moron
who’s a fool and has no shame
We won’t give-up our freedom
our vote, or right to talk
Together, we will march as one
resist, and walk the walk
As the fires burn up our forests
and the deadly floods ravage our earth
All the traitors inside of the WH
give America new fascist birth
Our brothers and sisters patrol us
with the weapons of war that we made
As the songs they once sang about honor
about freedom and liberty, fade
They are building an army against us
search for people of color to blame
Armed with weapons of war in our cities
hidden faces are proof of their shame
As Republicans lie to the people
some reporters reply with a wink
And the viewers are all left to wonder
what was truth, what was lie, what to think
This is now a complete insurrection
being led by commander in chief
And the GOP Sedition Party
falls on all like a blanket of grief
We must all tow the line for our freedom
march together and then stand as one
It is now our time to be heroes
show the world how democracy’s won
To my mama they stole,
I dont blame you for what was done
You sacrificed your life for my childhood
You fought for my right of innocence
You spoke so I could have freedom
It's not your fault
You were just born black
I'm not old enough to understand why
But i do understand your love
I feel it even in your absence
I know I'm the child and your the parent
But even black mothers deserve to be nurtured
Your hugs were always the best medicine
They always made this bleak world better
When we can next visit I'll give all the hugs so you can be happier
I promise to find a way
To make the men with cuffs pay
For taking my mommy away
Love your 'sweet baby child'
(As you always call me)
P.s I love you
The rush of emotion stilled
The air once consumed by an undiluted energy
Now eerily quiet
Something lingers in the air
Justice?
No something louder but hidden
A violence so silent
It could go unnoticed by those who don't care to see
Those who choose wilful ignorance
The streets once crowded by protest
Now sits empty
Brought down from the high of purpose
Now left with an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness
The stench of death plagues the streets
Where once voice and life used to meet
Now only emptiness you will greet
Only thing left is failed legacies and echoes of long gone feet
The people who assumed these spaces
Just like the streets now empty
The promises of a better future
Dead like the movement
Despite having enough strength in their bodies to go on
Mourning takes their time of what's lost
Hoping to gain the strength to march again
But as the world continues to hate instead of help
Slowly losing their joy, the best parts of themselves
They are tired though not from the burning screams for justice
Nor the tiring marches
But through a slow realisation that the world they live in may never change
It's not about tone
Its about policing of voice
It's not about the sound we make
It's the words echoing through them
They don't fear us being seen
They fear us being heard
That we will hypnotise the masses with our words
They know their biggest threat is the power of our voice
It's why they wield silence as a weapon
It's why protest is a declaration of war to them
That every march is a song of rebellion
They fear our music not because of its beauty
But because it spreads a message of spoken truth
We write our history
We sing our feelings
We paint our stories
Our strength Fueled
By the mourning of our fallen
Our joy the face of protest
The very thing they want gone
So many names on the page today, so many more gone— vanished into silence.
Does the world still care? I know they do.
I hope they do.
Children stolen, ripped from the arms that once held lullabies.
Teens slipping through dusk, running from homes that never saw them, or saw too much.
The ones who cared are left holding echoes. The ones who didn’t never noticed the absence.
But somewhere, a mother plants lavender beneath a window left ajar— its scent lifting like a prayer for the ones not yet home.
Somewhere, a name is spoken aloud, not forgotten. A candle burns in protest, its flame refusing silence.
We gather the fragments, press them into poems, into pages that refuse to turn away.
My heart The voice
Each beat a chant
Refusing to be silenced
Each beat getting louder
An act of defiance
It would not be quiet
Our skeleton
The foundation
The vessel which carried the rebellion
It's the ground that doesn't crumble
Even as we march
It doesn't take the attention
It remains humble
Knowing that it was not bigger than the movement
The blood is the strength
It doesn't let it rest
It is the breath of each footstep
It is the fuel of the movement
The bloodstream carries the fire
Throughout the body ensuring we never tire
The stomach feeds the protest
With words of encouragement
Echoes Throughout the body
And bleeds from our mouth
You can't put us down
Our skin Our shield
To show we won't yield
Our representation
Of everything we are fighting for
To let them know out blackness
Is something we are proud of
After all being black is the definition of greatness
The after
What happens after?
When what was loud is now silent
Where a place once filled with cameras go unnoticed
What once made history is now forgotten
Later
On TV they'll be a recap
The story will go
They'll manipulate the situation
Bonus if its told by a republican
They'll say
The police were peaceful, we'll be labelled as criminals
I guess it's opposite day
As in fact it was the other way
Those who will clean up
Will cry whilst they simultaneously wipe their eyes and wipe peoples blood up
Yes it was violent
No it wasn't us
But you'll never know
As the real story will be locked up
Poem ‘Oblivion’
Drastic times calls forth bold demands,
Not quiet hearts or passive hands.
For change to rise, the roofs and roots must shake,
To build a new, immoral and unethical ways must break.
Sometimes it takes the patience to fall,
To raise up justice, loud and tall.
Opposition paves the path, it’s true,
For something better, bold, and new.
Wrongdoing for too long has been bought.
For so long, people of the past have fought
Acts of misconduct is in plain sight.
We must fight wickedness and injustice
With all our might.
Together we must unite and stand strong.
Before we go down the path of oblivion
From them doing wrong.
First they said that our laws were sufficient
and the guardrails enough of a force
that the Courts and their Orders would stop him
keep the country and people on course
But the Justice Department had failed us
sadly frozen in fear and disgrace
and the SCOTUS is soaked in corruption
selling votes, taking trips, filling space
We’re the saviors who we have been seeking
we’re the heroes who we so adore
for when words upon paper lose meaning
it is up to the People to roar
Our lips burn like swords drawing
blood out at the break of a dawn.
Coughing poison droplets in the
fabric the time has spun.
There goes our youth forever;
There goes our thoughts-
all ends at nothing,
and nothing ends at all.
Praying lords to resuscitate
their kingdoms where we reside,
summon back the innocence of a child,
leaving behind something worth living for.
Today’s blessing comes via Elie Wiesel.
A man who understood injustice…prejudice and woe
having survived the Nazi concentration camps over 70 years ago…
The words he spoke once he was liberated…
today should be accentuated and stressed…
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice…
But there must never be a time we fail to protest.”
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