The Safari

The golden dust, the scent of coming rain, The rising sun on the vast and open plain. A canvas painted in ochre, green, and gold, A story ancient, and so bravely told. The engine hums, a low and patient sound, As the jeep goes searching for hallowed ground. A silhouette of giraffes, tall and serene, A living image on a wild and endless scene The mighty lions, a sun-soaked tawny pride, Hidden in the grasses where their instincts guide. A leopard's shadow, elusive and so rare, Sliding through the thicket with a quiet, watchful stare. The trumpeting echo of the elephant's call, As families wander, moving free and tall. A wildebeest stampede, a blur of motion swift, A thundering promise, a primal, moving gift. And when the twilight paints the sky anew, With fiery hues of crimson and deep blue, The campfire crackles, a low and steady glow, With jackals barking in the dark, and stars that grow. The stillness settles, vast, deep and wide, The wildness stirring, with nowhere left to hi...
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"I Can't Breathe"

I am on the ground

A man on my chest 

Another knee on my neck

Hemmed between tar and stone, and heavy bodies of my fellow men

How can I breathe


A few breaths I need

I try to speak

A breath of air is sought

Alas, dust from the ground, I welcome

My voice not heard

The pressure remains

Oppressively horrifying, to say the least


A breath of air still me eludes

Bystanders notice, the air I need

The blue and black, duty to care remiss

I continue to say “I can’t breathe”

Still he hears me not

Murder in public, repercussions not one, by those who swore to protect

Barbarism on display

Lynching days are back?

Humanity is gone?

Where art thou empathy?

Now I begin to cry, my mother I call


What am I?

Who am I?

A light to be extinguished?

A life to be snuffed? 

A person to be feared and executed on sight?

My body becomes limp

Another black and brown, dust becomes

When will this cycle end?


What became the promise to “protect and serve”

Innocent until proven guilty, a jury of my peers?

Dignity and liberty for all I was told, I guess the preserve of blonde and blue?

Are “all men created equal”?

Lip service at best


At this I pause, for I need to think, my heart aches with sadness, my eyes well up with tears

I should be worth more, life should be sacred

Dogs and cats, more goodwill than black and brown? Horses and all manner of beasts?

I shudder to wonder

My body in spasm


A social contract is severed, not for the first and terrified to say the last

Instant fatal justice lay in wait, for black and brown, offense of no consequence

Justice a right for most, a privilege to a few

Oh my, surely this is not America, "land of the free"? "Home of the brave?"


"All lives matter" and should matter! But some more than most it emerges

A big animal farm we have

Impunity is all

I still "can't breathe"

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