Poetry by Michael “Yasir” Belt

May 19, 2010

Uncivil Arrest
For George Floyd & Too Many More

When they ask “Why?”
We ask why the same
Why do you keep killing our children
And leaving us with the blame

Why do you see our blackness as a weapon
Using it to bolster inbred fear
Is it misplaced guilt of what you’ve done to us
Still now, from the moment you brought us here

When they ask “Why?”
We say that we are tired, so no one rest
Because of the air you strike from our lungs
The wearied beat at our chest

Violence, they say, begets violence
So why are we stricken when at peace
Being beaten, choked, gassed, shot, run over
We stand tall in the memory of our deceased

When they ask “Why?”
Insist that we shall no longer be the bearers of blame
When we refuse to tolerate the genocide

The color of blood runs in the streets all the same.

HOPE!

Never let hope die!
Along with it goes your soul, and your emotional control;
never let hope die!
Why?
We all need something to hold onto.
A gleam, a glimmer of light.
Light, being life.
Life without light, a dim sight.
Blind, floating through darkness.
No sense of hope; no sense of mind.
Open your eyes.
Open your eyes and see, what could possibly be,
Destined to be.

A sense of hope; a stable mind.
The Light of life; a passer of time.
Never let hope die!

©Michael “Yasir” Belt 2015

TOUR DE VILLA

Walk with me, through a place where the stench of decay is prevalent.
But watch your step, don’t trip, in a place where one slip, could render you irrelevant.
Where the pathways are strewn with hazmatic material.
Amongst a people for whom sobriety is sorry and intoxication is imperial.
Through the market place of open air whose multitude of venders are fatherless men.
As generations showing the latter the way, when the former simply learned consciouses contradiction.
Walk with me, in a land where it seems as if the only way out is the way in

Where one either surrenders to the succubuses, or rises above pigmented in corruption and sin.
In the belly of where morals and standards no longer exist.
With a people who were once emercified with pride, only for the proud to be dismissed.
Where teardrops are permanent stains, stemming from a mass multitude of things.
Tumultuous territory in which the morning bird cries instead of sings.
Through a kingdom where property is poverty to those few who own.
Governed by an incredulous communi(s)ty, from the people, for the people, its people, who siphon marrow from bone.
Walk with me, in a land where the catch of the day has clawed the closest to getting away.
Of a people who have come accustomed to Stockholm served as a 3 time daily entrée.
In a valley where roses come encased in glass.
Where an epidemic was instilled upon the destitute, which seemingly shall never pass.
A place in which it is common to find three generations of men housed under one roof.
At a complex where numbers are substituted for names and to be timid is uncouth.
Where an inconsideration for life is man’s accreditation.

Wade through a dense air whose fragrance of searing metal and lost souls grew from nauseating to acclimation.
Through a foreign territory for which those who are abroad seem not to care.
In a time when a day is merely 86,400 more seconds to bare.
Where the doctrine is different, the taught have studied meticulously and have yet to have learned a clue.
Even when iterated about in plain English, its meaning continues to be lost among you.
In a domain where if you are not a native, its customs would never make sense.
Where the majority of its inhabitants still in wait of recompense.