I don’t like the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter

It’s like reminding us what comes naturally:

Water matters, Air matters, Love matters, Food matters, the Moon matters … it’s like saying a no-brainer is thawing out.

 

 

What makes people stand up for justice is not justice …

It’s a VISUAL

 

It’s shocking

It exposes the SYSTEM!

 

Sh!t, we SAW it!

What now??!

 

HOW can we look away now?!

 

What do we do once it’s on CAMERA?

 

We saw a knee crushing on a neck

 

But we SAW it before!

And we SAW it again!

And again

And we saw it!

and saw IT!

 

We heard the pleas.

We saw the police.

But we heard it before

So many times!

 

We read about it during breakfast

while cracking an egg

squeezing an orange for juice not justice!

 

It happens every day

behind facades

in jails to innocent people

and to the guilty

of course

 

on the streets

 

in the dark

 

in bedrooms

 

in broad daylight

 

in boardrooms

 

and courtrooms …

 

(C) 2020 poetrasblok.com

 

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

#JusticeForBlackLives

 

We say we’re not like them
A generation ago
We came on the same ships we were hidden below

We came seeking protection
Away from the strife
Away from the struggles and the hardships of life

I’m not an incomer
My parents were ghosts
Sir I was born here
So where would I go?

There’s ghosts on the motorway
The world is on fire
There’s ghosts on the sandflats as the water gets higher and higher

There’s ghosts in the brothels
Behind thick stony walls
There’s ghosts and their children in prison food halls

I’m not an incomer
My parents were ghosts
Sir I was born here
So where would I go?

© Adem Ilhan, LAU