White Nights
Updated: Sep 3, 2020
Tell me how do you sleep?
How does one sleep
through the screaming of
their brothers?
How do police sleep on
their beds
Warmed by the breath of
their living spouse,
Lulled by the calm of
their quiet house?
How do they sleep?
Unconcerned by the lives
they stole
Unbothered by their
brothers
The others
We, the others with your
scorn sticked on the skin
Do you know how we
sleep?
In the deafening silence of
absence
The sawing pain of raw
injustice
Your violence
Our bodies
Our flesh
Your rule that calls for
unrest
Imposes strain
Exhaust us
Yet, we don't sleep, we
can't sleep
(But) You do
Denying rest even in
death
Absorbing our strength
and our breath
Exhausting
You exhaust us
Make empty shells of us
The sound of your
siren becomes clearer,
neater, invasive
I hear it in the streets, on
my bed, in my head, in
your world that forbids my
dreams so I can't sleep
I can't sleep
And tonight like other
nights
My mind can't find peace
In this endless rumbling
Simmering and suffocating
under the weight of my
guild
I ask: "Why am I here?"
When there's not enough
air for all of us to breathe
So tell me, how do you
sleep?