A POEM BY BEN PARKER - 31/5/20

 

Summer night

But these streets feel the coldest

Stories we hear

Feel like the oldest

 

History repeats

Like a song on loop

But I’m tired

Of the same old tune

 

How do you change a song

That you didn’t write?

How do you replace a meal

Once you take a bite?

 

Though this is no summer song

Or a gourmet dish

This is no IG challenge

This is no birthday wish

 

This movement that gravitates

The movements tectonic

But the change comes too slow

Whilst life moves supersonic

 

People don’t like to plant seeds

When they can’t taste the fruits

So they choose to walk on and accept how it is

And neglect the ageing roots

 

So the roots lay under surface

Neglected of the light

Only glimmers of the truth

Results in them rising to fight

 

We can only hope

One of these sparks ignites a fire

That spreads throughout the system

Reaching higher and higher

 

Until the pyramid is enlightened

With clarity of our reality

That the world will open eyes and see

There’s faults in our normality

 

The time is now to turn these heads

And elevate the movement

Educate our children

Turn them into new recruitment

 

Teach our friends and family

What education failed us

Shun the darkness that surrounds us

Share the good that has prevailed us

 

Take the time now

You know things are not right

To read books and hear tales

Of the other side’s fight

 

Learn about their history

And the privilege of the white

Why we got to bed with different worries

In our heads at night

 

Then spread that knowledge

Pass it on

Like you would a snack

Like you would a song

 

Then slowly in time

Piece by piece

The change is made

The white lies cease

 

Once the song is changed

Let us share our chorus

Working day by day

Until they can’t ignore us

 

Ben Parker

31st May 2020