Saturday, May 22, 2021

the only way out

No one here now will be made to leave 

There's no way to go back and undo the past

There can only be truth and reconciliation 

Providing meaningful reparations to make amends


This is what the future holds 

When we have the promised justice for all 

But in the present circumstances look at Israel

And see the past being recapitulated


Yes there are important differences 

But all settler states steal the land forcefully 

Asserting their right to dispossess the natives

Using racist tropes to excuse their inhumanity 


The brutality of slavery here still continues 

In the form of the prison industrial complex 

With white sheets exchanged for blue uniforms 

And lynching replaced by cop bullets and choke holds


The Palestinians know all about mass incarceration 

With Gaza as a form of ghetto concentration camp 

The Zionist state rules with its version of apartheid

Armed and financed by the United States 


And yet for the most part no one arriving intended it

Drawn to the idea of a place free from persecution 

Being themselves displaced persons refugees or deportees

Hoping to live a better life in a new land 


So this is the only way out of the endless conflict 

To welcome all immigrants like they could be our ancestors 

To cede prime land and sovereignty to the indigenous 

And to dismantle every aspect of systemic racism