In this… purest of whitest world,
The ‘R-value’ is priceless,
Tasteless, endless curve, all swerve,
Infection does not bend,
Vaccine fought to mend, what blindness!
My melanin scared,
These scars, malformed,
‘RACISM-24/7’; biblical plot? No, craven.
Your pandemic, endemic,
Endeavour to favour
With fervent Christian saviour,
This virus forever savour.
Giving blacks no inch,
With shooting arms, so bare,
You lynch.
Breaches of law, adore
You ride, hide behind, you reach.
Corrupted mind, you preach.
‘Herd Immunity’?
From slave, your voice, your choice,
Discriminate? Yes, WE HEARD EWE!
Bar, bar, black sheep,
In prison beds you sleep,
Equality? Joke? Black Lives Matter, woke?
Pity? Infinity with impunity… Treaty!
Farfetched leap, you grip,
Morality… fanciful ditty!
COVID-19, AR-15, AK-47,
‘RACISM-24/7’, black soul cry: no heaven.
Symptoms, beyond the pale, galling.
White light, no knight, same sight:
Knee on our neck, appalling,
Breathtaking, black body on
Pavement, calling…
Beware the world, its twirl:
Curse on your house, its swirl,
Racists making: ‘bred’, white oath, is ready, baking.
White rule, a brown God’s fool,
Bite the hands that feed,
Your mouth it will not cede; suck seed!
Tyrannosaurus Rex, George Floyd, all the others… rest,
While away, your reign extinction wrecks.
Copyright © 2020 Jhana Ruth Marc-Peterkin
'"Knee on our neck"': The phrasing of this extract from my poem, 'The R-value', as detailed above, must be attributed, as a matter of right, and courtesy, to Rev. Al Sharpton, who is renowned globally as a civil rights activist.
The words, '"Get your knee off our necks"', echoed around the world as they were delivered by Rev. Sharpton, in his eulogy, during the memorial service held for the late Mr. George Floyd on 5th June, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. George Floyd, a human being and citizen of the 'United States of America', was murdered in broad daylight on 25th May, 2020, as Derek Chauvin, a serving police officer, knelt on Mr. Floyd's neck for '"9 minutes and 29 seconds"'.
Here is a link, from The Guardian U.K., to part of Rev. Al Sharpton's "Get your knee off our necks" eulogy: 'Get your knee off our necks’ Sharpton delivers moving eulogy at Floyd memorial | George Floyd | The Guardian.
'"9 minutes and 29 seconds"', from The New York Times: Prosecutors Say Derek Chauvin Knelt on George Floyd for 9 minutes 29 seconds - The New York Times (nytimes.com).
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