Red Blood

Red blood spills but I don’t think you care.

Unless my skin is pale, my complexion fair.

Unless I was born here, on this side of the border

Arbitrary lines just to maintain the order.

Ankara was burning but no media hysteria

No flashing headlines for the bombs in Nigeria.

And when people are fleeing from places like Syria

Towards our sacred soil that guarantees we’re superior

We refer to it as a ‘crisis’ – that’s what it is after all

A nuisance for us so we let the tents fall

In a place called the ‘jungle’, and even that name

Should fill us all with a deep sense of shame

Because it seems to me that we are more than ok

To let the ‘others’ drown while they are making their way

To this land which they say is full of hope and glory

But all I can see here is another wretched Tory

It’s not colony anymore, but I think it’s still empire

When we invade other countries because we desire

Transformative wars to give them ‘freedom’ over there

But not ‘freedom’ over here because really we don’t care

To share this world after decades of oppression

Generations of injustice and violent suppression

And a white man spouting hate can run for President

But a black man shot in the streets seems totally irrelevant

I’m hoping history knows how to change direction

Because I’m starting to feel like I need protection

From these structures of power that didn’t turn up overnight

Deliberate manipulation so they always win the fight

I want to believe that this is all in my mind

But I know that it’s real when I look at Palestine

Where the victims are demonized and the aggressor is rewarded

European crimes meant remedies had to be awarded

So property confiscation and resource appropriation

In the name of humanity, without any condemnation

And I know it’s much easier just to close your eyes

and to swallow all the lies just so you can get by

But understand this, that the land of the free

Will never really be when it was built on slavery

And I have no right to be bitter or depressed

When others are going through far bigger tests

I feel grateful everyday just to be alive

Knowing how hard it is for some to survive

But I still wonder if you really care

Because my skin isn’t pale, my complexion isn’t fair.

(March 2016)