Inexplicably silent in choir
being unusually quiet
not a word from me was heard
neither spoken nor sung
so as not to cause a riot
when jibes bad vibes at me were slung
and I was asked, 'Cat got your tongue?'
I replied, 'Here's the thing,
really and truly, I cannot sing,
it's been this way for all my years,
whatever it is I appear to hear,
and between my ears to me audibly sits,
tho' quite right there, when on the tongue's tip,
it's not the same music my mouth emits.'
A burned up system of control
A revolt spoken with flames
Silence was no longer an option
Peace had been exhausted
The only language they communicate
Violence
The police man specialises in brutality when it comes to the black man
'Stop and search'
An excuse they use
To abuse
The 'blacks"
Used as a slur
By the oppressor
As if it's poison, as if it's something to beware
Of
The Brixton riots of 1981
An explosion ready to happen
All that was needed was a lighter to spark the fuse
13 bodies
13 humans
13 black men,
Lost to hate
Tensions rose like the smoke in the buildings
A quite smile left on the faces of those reeling
Their own kind of justice, it was oh so freeing
Retaliation they didn't expect
In their own words they believed they had 'controlled the blackies'
But we have a weapon
One that whispered through generations
Nothing loud
Just something strategic
Something quiet
A lingering secret
Black rage
A communal experience
Of built up fatigue
Of the uk's involvement
In the mistreatment Of black people
Insanity and back again
Somethings got to give
Whatever you do
Please don't shout my name
It calls up the demon
In me
We partied when we were young
Had to stop the world from turning
We ran as fast as we could and then faster
You lived for the minute and never thought it all would be gone
Crushing killing
Creative aptitude
Not even thinking of the beginning
Screw your last chance to have an answer
To find undercover
Screw your last chance
To be nice
Chance to say sorry
A word
A sympathetic gesture
Shame in my pockets
Empty or full
Resist the need to have fun
A pick of a constant tease
Tragically love intolerant
Honest to all
but myself
Give me the infinite scream
Sometimes a monster in my dreams
We can see the future
But choose
Fade into black
I am
far
too
i r r e p r e s s i b l e
to be
confined by a
c l o s e t.
Cold choice, listen to the voice!
Waver filleth all!
He who suffers Sin annoys?
Blanching light, thy pall.
Hated minutes of each day!
Flickering in time!
Doubt belies all disarray!
Drop and drop, O dime!
Slickened hatchet, cudgel black!
Blood along the back!
Stuff the world down bitter crack!
What then profits? Stack?
Weather, winter, splinter!
Shredder, call the storm!
Brutal blight, art beginner?
Blizzard, keep us warm!
Swarm of locust, come like frost!
Hie, O holocaust!
Bargain devil, get me Faust!
Nil regard the crossed!
Ghoul of ancient story;
Where will this dark tale go?
Morning, hast thou glory?
Walk well behind the row!
Yellow king in city vast!
Hang then all from mast!
Rule of law, thy just repast!
End Times, fast! Ye hast...
Spatter Riot
Percolating slowly through the thin orange sheep skin,
The poison of chaos oozes through widening pores,
Bringing to boil the spattering seed of evil.
Mother tongue held in such high regard, not only words, tone is known.
Beating chests signal the end, well maybe in the mind of the ignorant.
Broken glass, and sweeping rubble make for the coldest of soundtracks to the nightly news.
Failing to heal without the bandage of community, fractured are the few.
Discontent and disavowed makes for passing headlines, while we continue to pull together to heal like ointment on a grazed knee, of a child fallen from a tree, or the swollen flesh of a arm got by an ant, wasp or bee.
Talking, listening isn't all that we need?
Heated to silence
Cold in violence
I wish i could not dream
I plan not to sceam
I heard they were quiet
How calm was the riot
To claim victory in nothing
To hold on to while you are wanting
Its best could have been worst
I died drowning in what i thirst
Redeemed by my guilt
I stand on how i wilt
If i could hear what i see
I may believe that I'm free
When law and order broke down on the street,
And people run riotous, with no retreat,
Looting and destroying city's core,
Youth, in their recklessness, yearn for war.
But only those who've witnessed war's cruel face,
Can truly cherish peace and its embrace.
A youngster clamoring for battles to wage,
Knows not that war brings death and endless rage.
Until, suddenly, hundreds fall before your eyes,
And by a mere whisker, you escape demise,
A bullet spins past, grazing your ear,
And you question yourself, Am I still here?
Or have I gone there, into the great beyond,
Where souls depart, where life's thread is frond?
Then you pinch your cheek, to feel your own skin,
To confirm you're alive, and not a ghost within.
Only then can you truly comprehend,
The premium value of your life, and its precious blend.
Race riot
I went to a dancing competition, little did I know
it was naked dancing by grotesque old people
the young in the audience laughed till their faces
became a mask of horror, looking
at their future
someone pointed at me, look! he is old, grabbed
me and tried to tear my clothes off
I jumped out of the window and landed in a lake
5 fathom deep, of forgotten tears and also
tears shed a graveside
I drank the tears, buckets full
I went back to
the window and spewed it over the shameless
old people, who had let go of their dignity in
pursuit of eternal youth and fled to the woods
torchlight and angry voices, get him he is not
a democrat wants to stop us from having fun
he is a Nazi, sting him up with the Jews
we know his name is Samuelson, the third
and has a tailor shop in town
Has there ever been a time in history
When war or something similar
Like ugly violence or a riot
People are never satisfied never content
Never happy with their lives
But there is a solution... trust me
There has to be... SMILE!
Soft, like solitude, silent and still
Soothing away the sorrows,
Grumbling, rumbling, suggestions
Muffled by mystery, our history –
Trembling beneath the shadows,
Quivering in life’s strange insurgences
Never say never
It could happen
It could not
Committed to
Non-commitment
Vocalizations stuck on
Silence
It's enticing?
It's inciting
Riots
Put your President
Behind bars
Unlocked my cage
Set me free
Free to roam
In the predator's enclosure
Your enticements are incitements
There once lived a huge, black bear named quiet
In the forest, he ate a bland diet
Never one to roar
He was such a bore
‘Til gobbling a troll, rousing a riot
A Funny or Bawdy Limerick Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
May 2, 2023
Oh! How great it tastes: Steamy Riot
But is it delicious like Quiet?
How glorious it appears: Chariot
Still in some wars and conflicts: Idiot…
I had had to talk about Riot:
The scene promising all but quiet,
The maddest jury of a chariot,
As men go for chaos like diet.
Real and fake claims clash with canisters
They flee who had wished to spoil banisters:
Rioters who hang on: Real Monsters
On the spur of the moment, songsters,
Also heroes for loving their words
And towards sad death moving in herds…
The crucial point: Riot not quiet:
While it reigneth all vultures flyeth.
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