I met an artist today - Chris Pierce

I met an artist today

Chris Pierce.

Your soulful tunes stirred my soul

A tsunami of memories

Overwhelming tides of change

Falling into a vortex.

Disorientated

I stumble

The harmonica strident cries

Of a tumultuous march

Facing our oppressor

Armed

Ferocious

And dangerous.

Aah in step with river of courage

We toyi toyi.

We sing the liberation songs of our ancestors.

Our loins girdled for battle

We are invincible.

Unstoppable.

Let us rem- member Soweto. Sharpville.

Tulsa. Wounded Knee.

Masscres of white supremacy wields its brutal sword

Demeaning black lives in the blood of innocence.

Aah but the tree of freedom

Nourished by the blood of martyrs

Grows stronger.

Gaining confidence we eject the spectre that haunts us daily.

Racism birthed by European renaissance

The original sin of slavery, colonialism

Apartheid.

It lives on.

A social construct that murders black lives.

That permeates the language and deeds of the dominant narrative

Of our colonizers.

Aah the unbearable being of whiteness.

A never ending cycle of transgressions

Seeking to tailer black stories.

To civilise the ‘savage’ of the other.

To fit a convenient untruth about genocide.

May we find the courage to face our demons.

The pusing wound of humanity

Stoked by superiority of the skin

That continues its relentless

Erosion of black lives

And excellence.

Gratitude Chris.

You remind me of the unfinished work.

The deferred dreams

The chains that bind all our ancestors.

Now is the moment of truth.

To erase the deceit of history.

Release humanity from the wound

Of superiority and inferiority

The common wound that shackles us to our past.

Free us from falsehoods.

Shame. Guilt. Fear.

From untruth to truth.

From ignorance to wisdom

We are free in body, mind and spirit.

We are the Light. Bridge. Love.

🙏💚❤️💙