PRIMAL

God, grant us the power to use the voices we have been given

Forgive us our trespasses

Om Namah Shivaya

Destroy to recreate our world

Allah-u-Akbar

Praise be to Allah

God is great

Dear lord, give me the courage

To stand with, and for my brothers and sisters

Jai Ma Durga, Goddess Kali

Ride the tiger and roar

Give me the wisdom to take action

 

It matters not where you were the day this chapter began

It matters what you did when the time came 

No more memory mutations

Dressing up history into what lets us sleep at night

Be uncomfortable get busy

It’s time to clean up the messes of mass hurt and hatred

No more you first after me

No more gag order, silence and strangling

Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers wailing

 

Primal is my rage

Primal is the stage

We find ourselves in

This time and age

 

Primal is my fear

Primal is my love

For you, he/him,

They/them, she and her

 

Enough of the white noises

Of the white voices of supremacy

The oppression and repression

Of a nation in depression

The land of the free and home of the brave 

We are no more

 

Primal is my rage

Primal is the stage

We find ourselves in

This time and age

 

Primal is my fear

Primal is my love

For you, he/him,

They/them, she and her

 

Enough of just a cry for fairness

A fairness that is just like justice

A justice that is equal like equality

 

What’s the cost of a life

A breath?

His breath?

Her breath?

 

I can’t breathe–

I can’t breathe when he can’t breathe

You/me/he/him/she/her/they/them

All those who can’t breathe

Yet, I breathe / Still I breathe

 

Primal is my rage

Primal is the stage

We find ourselves in

This time and age

 

Primal is my fear

Primal is my love

For you, he/him,

They/them, she and her

 

Be seen not heard 

Then, don't dare be seen

With a hoodie, a bindi, burka or cap

Best just not be, leave

 

Don’t speak, interrupt or try to change

The way things are works fine for some

So just go back to your country

Go back to from where you came 

 

Primal is my rage

Primal is the stage

We find ourselves in

This time and age

 

Primal is my fear

Primal is my love

For you, he/him,

They/them, she and her

 

Good enough is not enough anymore

Take a knee you say

In prayer we get down on our knees

We bow, we bend our backs

You take the knee 

Generation after generation

Used and abused and reduced 

Now 6 feet under

Names up in flames

Say their name

Say their name

Chanting is not enough

 

Primal is my rage

Primal is the stage

We find ourselves in

This time and age

 

Primal is my fear

Primal is my love

For you, he/him,

They/them, she and her

 

Primal is the roar

Primal is the floor

We stand on 

The earth that holds us and feeds us

Is Primal

 

Where we are from

What we are made of

From dust to dust

We’re all matter

We come we go

What we do with our time matters

There’s no time to waste

Matter.

 

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

 

Leave a comment below with your thoughts and share this poem as we create a just world together, and with love,

 

Richa.