ALL LIVES MATTERS

by Abdulsalam Farouq

Since I became familiar with racial history
I’ve heard and caught glimpse of what it means to be black in countries overseas
As emphasized In songs like that of Kendrick’s,
In poems like that of Tariq’s,
in books, movies and speeches of men like malcom x who died for this same course with bullets in his body
Same as martin luther king and a long queue of black folks of the black community

It keeps popping feeds, with hashtag, views and retweets on our srceens
An endless generation yearning for equity in a mixed society
where a black man’s blood spilled, is an avenue to celebrate an unending grief
Yesterday they demanded justice for her against police brutality
Today they echo for justice for he who was gunned down while jogging down the street,
And with outmost certainty there’s going to be a tomorrow captioned justice for another person
So goes repeatedly the traumatic parody of tragedy

Though I appear to be in a different continent from where this is happening
but at the same time it’s of greater concern to me, not because we share the same ancestry or the same colour of the skin, but because I’m also human being
I know men of my own nationality will probably come for me and term this as a misplaced priority,
when we have tons of our own problems left unaddressed to deal with
But how do I address that which would be considered as hate speech ?
That which might earn me detainment and harrassment from government agencies


So now I wonder how many body shall fill the earth?
how much gallon of blood shall quench their thirst?
How many black men shall be untimely laid to rest?
How much hatred and rage shall consume their chest?
How much stories of the abuses will fathers have to tell,
their children and the generations to come after them?
Before they realise that all humans breathe the same air and have equal heads, hand, legs and ears
Before they realise that “ALL LIVES MATTER ” and despite the differences that we’ve mapped for ourselves
we’re are not different in eyes of he who created the heavens and the earth.