Asoka Weerasinghe 2 June 2020

(for Lowell, Nirmal and Chem)

Just now a cloud
of screaming black ravens
flew over Minneapolis,
perched on the leafless trellis
of branches
of trees at the Powderhorn
Community and shed tears of blood
from their paining red eyes
and I sighed
O my brother George
O my people
It was no more a faceless horror
that got you
it was a knee of a white-man
in a khaki uniform who
 forced pressure
on your neck
Please
Please
I can’t breathe
Mama
Mama
I can’t breathe.”

It is this irrational white-terror
O my God
I can’t breathe
don’t kill me officer,
Come on man
I cannot breathe.”
And the clock keeps ticking’
every minute,
it is  5…6….7
who finally caught up with
Him and he couldn’t run.

Where is Oprah Winfrey
Martin Luther King,
Barak Obama
 are you not going to give me
a spoon full of water?”

O my brother
O my people
What have you done to meet
 this whiteman’s savagery’
in a country that you too
helped to build.

‘It’s my face man
I didn’t do nothing serious man
Please, please man
I can’t breathe.”

The clock counts minute 8
and George Floyd is gone.’
He is dead!
I join the ravens singing
from the trees.

We shall overcome
Some day,
we shall overcome
some day,
O deep in my heart,
 I do believe
We shall overcome
one day.”

And the ravens flew
 away cawing loud
in an angry black cloud.
Brother George Floyd,
 watch out for me, when
I will meet you in heaven,
Keep me a comfortable nook
and I promise I will look
forward to share my ration
of the spoon full of water.