Mourn.
The lives lost,
the lives held captive,
the lives stolen,
the lives taken, burnt, beat, enslaved, drowned, silenced…
Murdered.
Mourn the lives they left behind.
Their colorful presence now blurred.
Unrecognizable.
Mourn.
Then get back up.
Fuck up the system that did this to them, to us.
Get the fuck up, gather your power, call on your courage,
your ancestor’s strength.
And hold underneath your boot the very structures
Built to claim power over blackness.
Mourn.
But make sure you wake up and crush,
turn to dust, destroy a well oiled intentionally designed crooked system.
This is no time for gentle reform.
It’s time to revolt.
To burn down to the ground the existing structures
and build wholesome ones in their wake.
Ain’t no change without complete destruction of an old pattern.
Author’s Bio
As a writer based in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, the pen name [M.A]. L. H. D. Z. was birthed for and by this author to comfortably share her work without feeling external pressure for being her authentic self. After running a triumphant experiment committing to a year on Instagram under her pen name, sharing writing for her personal series titled #NoFeelingsLeftBehind, she continues to write short stories and poetry in the hopes of one day becoming a celebrated author.
