We need not climb on the shoulders of our elders to look at their toes

This

This is the war my favorite poet warned me about

The one between me and me

The slow drag crawling inward

The terrible stench of lies sweeping the mouths of the people

A rat pissing on cotton

A self-administered needle in the arm

Zombie stares and rubber spines

The fountain outside my window whispers of calm

The bombs dropping in my head

How many children?

How many children died for the sake of my comfort today?

How do I survive?

How do I survive, how do I survive this inability

To stop the worst acts known to mankind?

It's the us of it

The us of it

Tell them

Tell them

Tell them to talk about the blood

The sweet red river of rage

Pulsing footsteps in a chest

The skin of a drum

The shaking brush of bruise of the blue black truth

Tell them to talk about the blood

Rwanda missiles in the Congo

From east to west, east to west, east to west

The stolen presidency

The government brainwashing

Paul Kagame

A dictator's love affair with the West

The military regime oppressing the people

1986 Uganda

U.S. allies

Tell them

Tell them, tell them

Talk about the blood

The Tutsis

Agents of the West

Migrants looting the land

The tentacles of the local elite

Neighboring responsibility

Corporations mining, the World Bank and the IMF

Tell them, tell them

Talk about the blood

Talk about the blood

Vanishing visions

Scarcity strangling the givers with everything to lose

The censorship

The censorship, the dank jail cell

Tell them, tell them

Talk about it

Talk about it, talk about

The blood

The death machines in our palms

Scrolling the death machines in our palms

Tell them

Tell them

Talk about it

Talk about

The blood