Tears for Black Earth

There’s no escaping this daily roll calling -

Every day in the news: Another black youth fallen

Three more …

Four more …

Gutted families, howling. Bawling

Is gang warfare in de street

O God! All we man-chile dying!

Police say dem open fire first

Why de hell dey always lying!!

“He was always a  good boy”

Hear the soul-cry of the mother

“I did tired, tired warn him …”

Lament of de part-time father …

“‘bout de company he did keepin’,”

“‘bout de drugs pushers in de hood’”

“‘bout dat gyurl wid who he was sleepin’ …

everybody know she family no good!”

Blame and finger-pointing

More boys wid guns for hire

A community in pain

Roads blocked with burning tyre

Streets on fire with Black man fury

Cries for “Justice” - so vain

Man-in-de-street form de jury

While politicians build box-drain

To ease the angry growing strain

 the unanswerable pain

Retributive killings

Blood soaks the soil

Unstoppable tears spilling

While Mother Earth recoils 

into deeper, blacker darkness

And the weeping of black chile-modders and black mothers fills the air

While black boys’ bodies bleed red rivers everywhere … O God! Everywhere!

Blood and tears stain the earth in unending mounting waves

Growing fresh fields of black flowers out of sad, nameless graves