We Will Rest Not, George Floyd

Brazen with whiteness
four toads
exerted presence
cuffed and killed a man

“I can’t breathe.”

On the front lawn
of America
stripped of empathy
the leader knelt

Not in prayer –
reverence burns his lips –
he knelt with authority
or his version, venomous

Three looked on
ignored pleas
gloated in the horror
of life’s final gasp

Humanity’s blood
now cold
unleashing a scream
a primal, reptilian rage

The offspring
of oppression
and hate
uncoiling

Like snakes
nest disturbed
rising against injustice
burning down the walls

As The Man weaves
his tale of dissonance
casting lines of division
few listen..

Black Lives Matter
drowns the rhetoric
the breakthrough is complete
we can no longer look away.

(For George Floyd and all the others murdered senselessly at the hands of those commissioned to protect.  Submitted to Reena’s Exploration challenge: breakthrough.  Image my own.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write Me an Ending

Ego fiercely defends
status quo, perceives
movement as predator

Soul craves peace,
provoked by the illusion
division the public glide

How do we manage
when progress, stripped bare
displaces understanding?

Alone, I cycle through
these observations
encounter jammed passages

Dismayed by deviancy
messages aimed to exploit
the vulnerable naked and blind.

(For Eugi’s Causerie weekly prompt: observation.  Image my own.)

Quarantined Thoughts

Oh, the plans I make –
swept up in sudden quietude –
art, writing, books to read –
creativity leaps with excitement

And yet, there is a somber tone
ringing in my head – an anxious
whirring – reframing solitude
as social aberration…

And in this dance of light and dark
how shall I weave the threads
braid together a semblance of order
find a balance I can live with?

(Inspired by the prompting of Reena’s Exploration Challenge: quarantined thoughts.  Image my own.)

On Common Sense

Can common sense be taught –
friendly snapshots coercing shifts?

Novices proclaim innocence,
blame their peers, but remember

When humanity is a foreign concept,
and sensibility a second tongue

The underdog suffers, and
who knows what is to follow?

(For Eugi’s Causerie weekly prompt: underdog.  Image my own.)