Lush Anansi Tales

The World Went Black

Black,
today the world went black,
 black fear, black pain,
 black rage,
 centuries of black trauma,
 bottled up,
 spilled over today.

Voices of brothers slain,
voices of sisters lost,
 voices that stretch as far back as Africa,
cried out today for justice,
and their tears fall upon us now,
like a tempest storm,
 and I sit in its eye,
floods of pain,
washing over this land with force,
thunder lashes, and from its light,
much is being revealed,
flashes of truth come spilling,
from mouths of those who would still see us oppressed,
hiding behind their self-important lives,
the lives that they only think matter,
but we will not be denied,
and with flood and fire,
they too shall be cleansed.

 This reckoning has been a long time coming,
and as the tempest rages,
the oppressors,
the system,
the false friends,
all the storm will break,
and we will shine,
from the day the world went black.

Ian Royer (c) 2020
Art by James Hackett (c) 2020