A silent trumpet signals reveille’s call
Shadows play liars poker
Amid the stone
Sunshine tiptoes past
The grey mourners
Forgotten flags
Offer a tattered role call
A sad wind stiffens in salute
As a silenced trumpet weeps
Rebelliousness is a sacred mark, owned by those who changed people and history.
In the present, it is tortured, hidden, and barely responsive—because it refuses the familiar paths the greats once walked.
But if someone wants to carve their name into it, this generation will not let them.
Anger, the emotion of the unheard,
When words won't work, it speaks through hurt
Peace was never an option - when the hate you give continues to burn
When the hands you touch, turns to ashes
Anger becomes validation, for when comfort is a luxury not afforded
Outcasted, into the shadows, our pain overlooked
Anger, an echo of ancestral hurt,
Of justice unserved -
The rights of black people, constantly burned
This the reason why peace can no longer be an option
Anger is our self-made reparations
We decide how we recover,
We decide how to heal
We decide our emotions
Dictation is the tool of the weak, abused by our oppressors
We feel what we feel due to their racism
The way we deal, was never our fault
It was the world that forced us into survival
Our healing will be their downfall
Anger is one of our greatest weapons
It is the fuel for every revolution,
This is what gives every movement energy
It travels in our blood, in each blood vessel
Anger is necessary to our survival -
Because to be a conscious black person, is to live in a constant state of anger
The will that won't be silenced
They stopped my limbs from walking
I close my eyes
I see myself running field to farm
They cannot catch
The prison cell of poverty
I lift my pen
I pour my vitriol onto page
Riches echo back
They educate my fragile mind
I check my facts
I note that every source of truth
Contamination
They tried to keep my legend low
I fan my flames
I burn their broken records
I write my own page
They tried to silence my freewill
I laugh out loud
I live my life without regret
Fears fade as love wins
Where do all the voices go
When told to repress their emotions
Do they fake a smile and swallow it whole
Or do they bury their heads in the ocean and scream
The black voices are silenced
Trapped in the purgatory of compliance
Usually erased by a history of violence
Or thrown into solitary confinement
No light, no windows
Just an eternity of darkness
Voices hidden by oppressive shadows
But what of those that demand to be heard
Voices beneath the earth
Silenced by death and historical erasure
Instead of words
Do they make the ground tremble with their anger
Do their spirits control the weather
Do their souls become messengers
To represent all those who go unheard
All those black speakers
To continue a legacy of black courage
Of daring to speak up against the oppressor
mouth unable to form words
then sounds of desperation
inspired by wisdoms presence
awestruck I retreat into silence
When grief became a shadow
It felt as if nothing else mattered
Like a sudden darkness
Raining down upon us
Like sucking the light from our eyes
Like a wound opened multiple times
It follows you like a stalker
Creepily walking behind you
Keeping an eye on your every moment
And when you think you outsmarted it
When you take a deep breath and treasure the moment
It strikes when you are most vulnerable
Stealing your breath
While watching you struggle
The weight of what could've been haunts you
Wishing you didn't give in to the world's cruelty
Whishing you could travel back to the moment
When the world taught you, your skin was a problem
Telling the broken you
You love them
When the world forces you to carry perfection
Whilst teaching white children that their skin equates to perfection
Wishing the world could see
How damaging trauma can be
When you make black kids believe
That they are a crime against humanity
Carrying it to their teens
And through adulthood
believing
A world harbouring their envy
When in reality
It's us They want to be
She walked with dreams in her gentle eyes,
A future lit beneath morning skies.
But shadows crept where light should stay,
And stole her breath, her hopes, away.
Sawera’s name, now etched in pain,
A flower drowned beneath the rain.
Not by fate, not by some twist,
But by hands that evil kissed.
What justice lies in silence kept?
While mothers grieve, and sisters wept?
Where were the laws meant to protect,
When dignity met such neglect?
She wasn’t weak;she was betrayed,
By a world where monsters roam unafraid.
By voices that should rise, yet hide,
While another girl's light is pushed aside.
So hear us now, and hear us loud,
We will not bow, we will not crowd.
Justice isn’t just a prayer,
It’s action sparked from deep despair.
For Sawera, and girls like she,
We ask the world: let justice be.
Not just in words, not just in tears,
But in a world where they outgrow fears.
Raise your voice. Break the chain.
No more Saweras. No more pain.
Day after day tired
pain medicine pushing through
tilt of head -asleep
Ignored
by my children
Especially
my daughter
Taken
for granted
Taking
up space
Living
unnoticed
My pain
front and center
Checking
off boxes
That never
erase
Knowing
she loves me
More
now than ever
My face
a reminder
Of greatness
long past
My voice
the last vestige
Of songs
sung together
A melody
silenced
When first
—became last
(The New Room: January, 2024)
Desperation clings to the branch
Wrestling with a frightened leaf
Begging a howling wind for more
Wondering why one leaf would fight
The wind abates, she sits alone
Desperation clings to the branch
Weeping in the hoar frost darkness
Beneath a cold, uncaring moon
Where had the color gone, the songs
the nesting birds, chirping crickets
Desperation clings to the branch
In Fall’s silenced soliloquy
An inexperienced drummer
A rattling of untrained sticks
Counting coup on Winter’s coming
Desperation clings to the branch
Speech Gets Silenced
8/23/2023
.
If you follow all laws and pay all your taxes.
Prepare for FEDS to come after you.!
If you dare worry about your rightful safety in Texas
You may be considered to be planning a coup?
If you have a good job, saved for your future. then ….you are evil
If you believe in the American Constitution
You are under suspicion for planning civil upheave?
For all these things, the President sees you as evil, to be locked
away in an institution
But if you are an addict,, kill people, steal or remain for
years and jobless and in the dole?
However, if you follow laws and have done
good for this nation…are less than moles.
Even if you are dork or an alcoholic, your
background is pristine and spotless.
Grouchy, loser DA’s want only the good.
in striped suits in prison institutions!
Thinking in the,
Absence of silence.
A droplet of ink,
Can make millions think
Thinking in the
Absence of this silence.
Silence is being answered,
From questions that have
Never asked?
It is silence,
You do get
Pearls of Wisdom
Thickens, be it said.
Don't plan on being helped,
For help has gone silent
When this book, sitting here
On the shelf, silenced.
Silences, be it that,
Standish one
Instead, be the laid-back one
Make some history.
I am writing his words,
Doing what he does.
Takes one last glance at,
The silence around the room
Silenced is his, he roosts.
Locked up in stares
Silence is the teacher
Spread in bed
Time should forgive us
You caress my troubles
An invitation to my pleasures
You awaken my senses
Despite my inner seizures
Your thrusts pound on the exterior
Body gestures for improvement
Attentive but less spoken
You deliver to my inner
My sounds, your melody
Your touch, my symphony
Hands where they should be
Lips need not speak
Time has forgiven us
You've unleashed the beast
16 May 2022
Choose-A-Title, Vol 30
sponsored by Edward Ibeh
The Gambler
By Juno Byron
There lived a ruler
Wh'as a good gambler
tall as giraffe's neck
Silly slim handsome deck
Chaos his best friend
I myself have guns
They have become Jesus
On the cross - said
He ate cigga's da'ly
And rode on horses
In the slums when
He came they hid
Pub books had his
name late in the
Night he came home
Silently silenced go'ment 'ficials
He was a Pharaoh
But his rose flower
Brought him down so
His name was Chalby.
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