Grief goes unchecked
when a sick White cop
kneels casually on
a Black man’s neck,
Colleagues standing idly by,
They have not enough tears
in their lifetimes to cry
for the hurt and outrage
caused, let alone
a family shattered.
A self evident truth!
But still we have to shout
that Black Lives Matter.

When when when?!
We have been here before
for 100s of years, brave
Black Women and Men
were fighting
for their rights and
to free all our souls.
Now upstanding, kneeling ,
while a hollow president
chief resident of a so White House,
is gobshiting, igniting;
‘When the looting starts
the shooting starts’.
When will we all learn
that where racism simmers
cities will burn?
There is pain in that rage.

After positive action, racist reaction,
the inclusion and grace of Obama
then vulgar face of Trump,
the privilege of Ivanka,
‘Making America great again’
There is hate in their veins.

Here, young Black and White
marching together, peaceful .
But at the end of the day
don’t we hear your fear
when you dare to proclaim
the protests spoiled by “thuggery?!”
What about your skullduggery?!
The cities built on slavery?
Shame in those gains.

Invisibility, complicity,
Omissions in our history,
How many statues didn’t you build?
How many opportunities bought,
How many positions filled
by men that looked like you?

Kids can list King Henry’s wives
but know nothing of the lives
ruined by our empire, taught
of not one betrayal or atrocity,
nor of the velocity with which
museums were stitched and
stuffed with stolen spoils.

And the looting goes on,
Unfair trade, bargains made
with tyrants, toxic waste
dumped on Black nations,
drug trials blatantly dangerous,
unfiltered cigarettes,
Niger Delta, Bhopal.
when your doors shut ,
…our doors open.

For decades of disco throng
we Whites have danced to,
sung along with Black music,
most of us I bet
never acknowledged a debt,
without blues, jazz, r&b, soul
no Adele or Winehouse,
no boring Billy Joel
and infinite others.
Without the shudders of
hip hop, the rhythm of rap
this poem could not happen.

Another UK angle.
Can we get a handle
on our racist hypocrisy?
Didn’t the Windrush scandal
show our leaders’ cruelty,
complacency, autocracy?
That those who,
for most of their lives,
helped us build our NHS,
drive our trains, conduct our buses
amid racist slurs, bruises, cusses
were locked in detention,
were caused harm beyond
comprehension!
A sense of belonging taught
to Black girls and boys,
torn up with the records
the Home Office destroyed.

The refugees from our wars,
the migrants from the poverty
we cause, are demonised,
For what?… for staying alive,
a crime to survive, after all.
Those Vietnamese who
came to our shores
frozen, suffocated in a van,
packed like sardines in a can,
were ‘mourned’ by the Tories.
If alive they’d be spongers,
infiltrators, feared invaders.

Here too, open your eyes,
London schools segregated
by White middle class flight,
Police impunity, partiality,
brutality. You say
‘The good ones we need’
But retrain, weed out the
Racists, the corruptly bent,
Listen to others’ stories
knowing their experience
of ‘your’ police is different.

End the hopeless
‘war on drugs’, legalise.
We are much shamed that
many Black boys who
should, like all children, be
cherished, prized
are excluded, framed
by low expectation,
by incarceration, left
to the gangs, knives
… and guns,
Bring back youth clubs,
mentors, and their needed funds.

Black angels, please come,
Make us pray, help us
call out the assumptions
lodged deep in our brains.
Help us teach all our children,
the younger the better
to call out the racism
that festers and fetters.

Help us know that
‘them and us’… kills.
While the left are fighting,
yet more blood spills.
White feminists stop sniping
at Transwomen, this division,
and all micro aggressions
are poisonous digressions.
Listen to Hamilton,
don’t throw away your shot.
If you’ve felt injustice
of assault, ostracism,
Even if you have not,
join to end discrimination,
marginalisation.
Can we aim for the best
of radicalisation
to dispel the racist clouds
that pollute our skies,
that lessen our sun’s
embracing love of all creation?
And finally respect Black,
in our so-called rainbow nation.