It has been at least eight years since I last wrote poems, but this COVID-19 lockdown and alarming events unfolding around the world have somehow released some creative juices. I would like to share a poem I wrote last night. Hopefully, it can change this troubled world a little. Thanks for reading:

 

KNEE ON MY NECK

Whose knee is on my neck?

get off, you fool

let me breathe

this air is for all of us

this air sustains all of us

 

i am chinese, not a virus

i am among the browns

just a shade lighter

perhaps with a dab of yellow

i am among the blacks

and minority ethnics

i am beige, off-white

does colour matter?

 

black slaves sold like cattle

enrich poor white traders whose wealth

affords them pride, prestige and power

rich white traders become

even richer while staring at

wall street ticker tape

as slaves kneel down and die

on the streets of free enterprise

handcuffs are unlocked and

slaves are set free while

white knees press on black necks

to stop them from rising up

 

people of colour leave the rainbow garden

to the promised land of the free

where they are to roam freely

in the savannah of plenty

but blood flows freely

through the veins of the guilty

and blood flows freely

on the raw wounds of the innocent

 

i too have a dream

i dream of a rainbow nation

where people of many colours

can breathe without any pain

where people of many colours

can dine in the temple of equality

where people of many colours

can live without shooting each other

and people shall beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks

nation shall not lift up sword against nation

neither shall they learn war anymore

in a new eden on a new earth

 

Lam Seng Fatt

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

June 8 2020