Niyi Osundare
It was a year like no other
When rage rumbled through the streets
In burning banners and angry songs
Their theme one short (un)common credo:
BLACK LIVES MATTER
A simple declarative statement
From History’s grammar of precious rule
So linguistically correct
But the Law, so often, is an unlettered lout
The cops’ incontinent guns
Have never run short on black bodies
Cheap like leftover meat in a backstreet market
Chokehold, stranglehold
The Law’s hard knee on the sprawling Black neck
Like a big, prize game after an effortless hunt
Acts more humane than the lynching rope
That primal scream, “I Can’t Breathe”
Solo swansong of an expiring Negro
Heard, worldwide, in the din of tumbling statues
And the rifling of the books where Oppression lives
BLACK LIVES MATTER
The year’s immortal anthem
The world stood surprised at its long neglected truth
From Minneapolis to Lekki Tollgate
And from the Western realms, a ray of tender hope
The ballot spoke: Sunset came to the deadly despot
Jolly good riddance to dangerous rubbish, dragged
Kicking and screaming from his polluted throne
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