The Human Race

Do we see
The Kneed
for a change?
Bowed at the wrong altar,
these knees,
bent by subtle degrees
into abhorrent place,
while a Trader-Slave
penned Amazon grace,
and The Lungs of the Planet
burned.

Fires in our chest;
fighting for breath.
Asphyxiated by disease,
amidst the ease
of our deliveries, we
burn the very trees
that feed the breeze
our blood needs;
ignore the holler,
as we press on the collar,
knee-deep in veneration
of the power of a lie.
We don’t listen to the cry
from beneath:
“I can’t breathe.”

The green blackens,
as black turns blue,
like a bruise
under the shoes 
of blue on black.
Yet another crack.

Or, a final click:
we can’t box-tick
with middle class rhymes 
at children’s bedtimes,
hoping for a Great Realisation,
with no information 
on how, what action
to generate that traction?
Hope alone is but a fraction
of the kindness equation
that equals.

The common factor is
One.
The integral integer 
to integrate 
with integrity. 
Each numeral inimitable,
each character, a symbol
of innate value,
returned to itself
when one is applied,
but worth nothing
when multiplied 
by the nihilate of hate. - 
A product of our times
which divides, 
to leave no quotient,
but an affluent ocean
of effluent notions
poured into a disposable cup,
and raised to The Powers
That Be.

That are
Abusers, 
Oppressors,
Colonialists;
All Messrs contriving
their rich mix,
with quick stitch
statistics,
made up
with thick red lipstick
that their tongue tip licks
to remove the sick,
ready for the next feast
on the least.

But if the common factor is one,
then, evens, odds,
those ‘up in the gods’,
or, those by blows
kept in the lows,
single figures,
or multiples of three -
more than ten digits 
could link them to me.

Until we each
become one
within,
beneath our own skin,
we cannot be The Many.
We cannot breathe any 
air. 

There
is the beginning of care;
far from the stark
contrasts
of light and dark,
we find the true arc
of the human story.
If it’s to be tinged
with any hint of glory,
go forth and multiply
One 
by
One.

See what we become.

First written on Tuesday 2nd June 2020 in the immediate aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minnesota, USA.