"i Can't Breathe..." (for George Floyd And The Rest Of Us)

"I can't breathe..."

Who cares?
It's another expendable darkie
Gasping for miserable breath,
Not from the choke of the virus
But the felony of systemic racism.

"I can't breathe..."

So can't I brother
But mine from the trauma
Of a nine-minute script
Scribbled in blood and tears,
Capturing our ageless pain --
The age left the stone
But the stone yet clings to the heart.

"I can't breathe..."

Who can, brother?
When humanity asphyxiates
From the noxious fumes
Of coloured hate and the strife of tongues?
The ages long left the dark
But the darkness yet colours the heart.

"I can't breathe..."

Tell me who can,
When the world chokes
On the trail of greed and mammon,
Groans from the triumph of might over right,
And bleeds from the sword of deviant devotions?

"I can't breathe..."
"My momma..."
"I can't..."
"I -I - I ..."

So he trails off with the last gasps
Of our cherished humanity...
And the Floyd of our inequalities
Succumbs to civilized villainy,
Drowning the world in a flood of tears.