Boisterous like a spoilt child
he hurts and haunts his victims,
unscrewing the bolts
dismantling the pieces
picking apart the structure.
He leaves behind a pile of wreckage
burnt, broken, butchered.
He twists and pulls
poisoning petrified prisoners.
Doing as he pleases
facing no penalties.
He torments and tantalises
shaping lives as if he is God.
Taking lives as if he is God.
Enslaving lives as if he is God.

Worse than the killing virus
it plagues them fast like wild fire.
They squeeze our lungs
“I can’t breathe”
infecting our system
“please”
venomous, vicious, vindictive.
A man made disease
known as privilege.
Victims are villainised,
soles stained and stolen.
******!
He is the devil
and he is they
and they destroy our society

and we…

and we are angry.

A woman was shot
in her own home.
A man could not breathe
and then he gave his last breath.

Do their lives mean nothing
due to their skin?
Or because the color blue
is the reason they're dead?

To be black is to live with shame
23 years old, Jordan on my feet I'm a ****
When I'm at the corner hanging with my friends I'm cuffed
With no apparent reason, suddenly I broke the law
My skin is what makes me a foe
What I didn't choose to become is what is getting me killed
My blood is as red as theirs
However, until it's splashed out on the floor then it'd be evident enough
My heart pumps as theirs
However, mine has to skip a beat every now and then waiting for the next pull up
My ears are moulded like theirs
However, mine are always agitated by the next " hands up!"
I was made by the same God you pray to every night to protect you from me
Until they realize that
When they see us, they will always see the next "animal" to hunt down

O.Aphane

Help me understand because I don't understand, it's got me questioning' like, "Why?

Just tell me why, tell me am I really different to you or are you the difference that keeps this void between us.

Are we not derived from the same beginning? Are we not derived to the same ending?

Did our ethnicities come with a guide book where complicated combinations are simply too exotic to comprehend?

I stand on a land where all these cultures and religions clash and meet daily and now do you still want to tell me that I’m really different to you.

I’m here in front of you all articulating through the silence. Where’s your devotion? Where’s your devotion, to fracture this never-ending chain of unfair equality?

As Martin Luther King once mentioned, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Well, I have a dream, a dream where this plague will soon have a cure for the state of being equal, in status rights and opportunities.

Before I rage and rant out of passion and before I lay down the historical traumatic facts don’t act like listening is a crime don’t be so blind, don’t be so blind to what tears up our social lives.

So, let me say sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry for the fact that our history is built on mass genocide against our native indigenous people I’m sorry we’ve alienated you stripped your form your rights and treated you differently due to the colour of your skin.

I’m sorry I’m only beginning with general history. Look I know I’m not much of a historian, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the fact that we were built based upon unfair equality

My mother always told me to give back to my community, but how am I meant to give back to a community which is so divided? I don't understand, it's got me questioning' like, "Why? Just tell me why"

I wrote this as I’m trying to pull my head through in hopes that you understand I’m no different to you …

✊🏻WE✊🏼ARE✊🏽ALL✊🏾EQUAL✊🏿

If you have chosen
Whether or not
You are angry
You are privileged.

If you have chosen
Whether or not
You will act upon your anger
You are privileged.

If you are just enough
To be angry
If you are lucky enough
To be privileged
Use your anger, use your privilege.

When staring into
The face of oppression
Silence and compliance
Are one and the same.

Killing for colour
because one is black.
Don't count on just one
because black, white
pink and brown
we all mourn.

I can't breath
I can feel the pain
on my arms, on my chest
on my legs on my back
and on my head
my heart is broken.

Because killing an innocent  
is not only Floyd in the US
is never one
is killing mankind!

Today, we fight many battles.
How has it gone so far?
Injustices rule;
Stand up for yourself, risk death.

We gain nothing through violence.
Our dignity is tainted.
Random acts of goodness overshadowed.
Living becomes indefinable.
Death is felt with the warmth of blood.

“I was attacked.”
Suffering being witnessed and felt.

“I barely survived.”
Now people need to watch their backs.
Fury prowls the streets,
Until justice is served.
Remember when we used to be free.
“I arrived home safely.”
A "Good Morning" text is now feared.
Today it can be exactly what it is.
In a few days, it's a death notification.
Now we need to fight together;
Great powers require big forces.

Many will fall. And
Eventually we will all rise.

(Take the first letter of each line and make a sentence.)

Dear George Floyd.

I write this to you today in hopes that your soul is in peace.

I write this in hopes that your martyrdom won't be another headline or simply another name in the papers. I write this in hopes that perhaps another man of Color won't lose his life to racism.

I write to you today to let you know that we will fight. We will fight so no man has to lose his life because of the color of his skin. We will fight so no race is called "thugs" again. We will fight for another 7 years for those 7 minutes of pain you felt.

Our fight is not over. Our fight has just begun. No man's life will be as cheap as a packet of cigarettes again.

25 May 2020, and George Floyd will be remembered.