How can we ask them

To rest in peace

When we cannot resolve

What put them in the ground?

 

The silence resonate

Louder than their screams

The injustice spreads further

When the watchers make no sound

…

Bloodstained stories

Drive us mad, then numb

We give our thoughts and prayers

Exercise only our thumbs

 

Victims are reduced

To hashtags and headlines

Till the stories, the gunfire

All start to intertwine

 

Frankenstein’s monster

Formed by our society

By our silence, by our fears

As the blind sit pretty

 

Bullets break their bodies

But never touch their souls

But it’s up to us

To fill up those holes

 

Don’t let the tragedies

Collect dust on shelves

If we don’t speak up

We’re cowards ourselves

 

Because how can we tell them

To rest in peace

If the turmoil up here

Has yet to cease?

 

We weep but then

We forget, we let them fend

For themselves, and a tweet

Is all we can lend

 

Injustice reigns

For as long as there remains

Indifference to the cause

And peace is detained

 

The media hangs on

Till there’s a better story to arrange

But we can’t let go

We need systematic change

 

We must pray for their souls

Pray for their families

But who the hell are we

To ask them to rest in peace

 

If we can’t stand together

Stay on the same team

Stand up for each other

Push against the old stream

 

Of hatred and prejudice

Disrespect and violence?

We can’t just look away

While mothers bear the absence

 

Of their innocent sons

Shot for being black

In the wrong place, the wrong time

I can’t even track

 

The statistics, the pain

The lives we have lost

They’re more than just numbers

Our silence has a cost

 

But I have to ask

How can it be the wrong time?

Did we jump back a century

Is being coloured a crime?

 

From chains to whips

To being pinned and gunned

And worst of all

The oppressed are shunned

 

And still we scroll on

Because we can live in peace

Our fear and lack of action

Is satan’s greatest masterpiece

 

I have nothing but respect

For those who don the blue

To protect and serve

And on that oath, follow through

 

But for the many brave

There are still those filled with hate

We must stand up to them

Before it’s too late

 

Before we are consumed

And forget what is just

Before we erode away

The last sense of trust

 

Pro-black, pro-cop

It’s not mutually exclusive

Together we must stand

Against the corruptive

 

Yet still we rot

In our patterns and ruts –

Ignorance and murder

But we keep our mouths shut

 

As they rest in pieces

Torn up by every wrong

As we let the weak

Out-silence the strong

 

We need to speak up

Work to enact change

Violence is not the answer

Those hypocrites are deranged

 

That fight fire with fire

To watch the world burn

“Hate cannot drive out hate”

When will we learn?

 

When will we say

Enough is enough?

And when will we mean it

And cut the oppressive cuffs?

 

God helps those

Who help themselves

They will never rest in peace

Till we achieve it ourselves