Today, George Floyd shall breathe

Poetry: When Shall We Breathe?

Down beneath

I can’t breathe

Centuries on, I remain at reef

Deep is my grief

Forget that book!

I’m black and out

Coloured, I surely standout

And truly don’t count

Pushed down to out

With nowhere to look

Forget that book!

That book is just grammar

Being black, ain’t no drama

I’m guilty until proven innocent

But he’s innocent until proven guilty

Forget that book!

That book

Is the oppressor’s hook

My liberty he took

Justice for me, a fluke

And yet he calls that book, a law to watch our back.

Damn! What crime is it to be black?

Forget that book.

We’ve screamed and screamed and yet we stuck!

True freedom and justice we still lack

What they offer always whack

No freedom in the land of the free

Potus blazing abuse

Rights making no use

No equality in the house of justice

What at all is this?

Forget that book!

My kids grow in fear

I can no more bear

The rules for them vary

And that makes me wary

Pulled over, my kids better pray

They are not their prey

Pulled over

Their kids know it’s just a chat over

Human are mine and same are his

But justice somewhat

remains amiss

Tell me, where is the book?

I just unearthed

That jogging is their preserve

I jog, I’m shot

Unarmed, I’m shot

Asleep, I’m shot

Toy gun I’m shot

Cigarettes, I’m choked

And when choked

The bloody bloke

Chokes as though for the slaughter I am a goat

With friends to boast

There is no book.

Brutalised in slavery

Oppressed in freedom

What is my wrong?

My colour or my person?

Tell me, who is the book?

We are honoured to be coloured

As the sun rises and sets

So shall my oppression someday set.

Till then

When we know not when

We still can’t breathe

Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey

Martin Luther, Kwame Nkrumah,

Nelson Mandela,

we still can’t breathe

We must rise from beneath

And truly breathe

That day shall come

That day, we shall overcome!

But when?

Dedicated to brothers and sisters of colour who have fallen to white supremacy and police brutality

Authored by: Senyo Hosi, 30th May 2020