Waiting for Godden: POEM: While Justice Waits

While Justice Waits

there they go again

filling your mouth

with their name

there they go again

adding more weight

to your burden

there they go again

giving you all the anxiety

whilst telling you not to panic

when the panic is rooted in

centuries of ... there they go again

there they go again

contradicting their own rules

double speak and double standards

there they go again

your dead are statistics

your ghosts live in hashtags

there they go again

getting away with murder

but calling it anything else

there they go again

doing nothing

as your vulnerable and

sick and dying

need all your love and care

and your living need all of your

focus, energy and time

there they go again

filling your plate

with their jobs

and the work

they should do

as your elected leaders

there they go again,

dominating your thoughts

so no work can get done

there they go again

grimacing on the front page

hogging the limelight

with this theatre of
performative cruelty

there they go again

suffocating light and hope

like a pillow held fast over the face

of the kicking and struggling truth

there they go again

consuming all the oxygen

and rewriting history

there they go again

like it's all about them

but it is because of them

and it is in spite of them

there they go again

obscuring the facts

blurring the edges

blinkering the horse

filtering the picture

there they go again

and it is not the names of the dead

nor the name of the nurse

not the name of the innocent

but their name in your mouth

how can it be?

that when you wake in the night

wailing and mourning and hurting

they are marching on your tongue

they are renting your insomnia

there they go again

using your anguish as garnish

using your defence as an attack

using your fear to divide you

using your rage to pass draconian laws

using your pain to sell shit back to you

using your grief to decorate newspapers

using your anger to kill you

because there they go again

casting an ass in the lead role

the wealthy politicians in the spotlight

the hideous clown gets top billing

the monster as the headline act

your horror gets a walk on part

your mourning cries are extras

your fury is the chorus line

your humanity the supporting cast

while justice waits in the wings

(c) Salena Godden / London / June 1st 2020 (first draft, work in progress)

1. Donate to Black Lives Matter: You can find the main donation page here

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5. Support Campaign Zero, a police reform group that has been working on policy solutions “informed by data and human rights principles.” More info here

6. Sign a petition: Civil rights group Color of Change launched a petition asking that all the officers involved in Floyd’s death are brought to justice. Find it here

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17. The Big Issue Foundation: bigissue.org.uk

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