after Hugo Gyrl’s, “Know Your Power” (2019)
Coiled tightly, poised with venom,
Release the serpent,
So it may conquer your oppressors,
With the vindication of knowledge,
And the blinding brilliance of your glory.
Talons filed to points,
Tear through the wall of suppression,
Needles in the dark,
Carving freedom,
Through the blood of those we mourn.
Unyielding strength,
Suffused through the pores,
Of a nation battered and burned,
Blood-red bricks,
Clenched by the fists of desperation.
Violence unbidden and unborn,
Bursting through the crowd,
Screams dying,
In a bloodbath of carnage.
Tendons coiled tight,
A spiderweb of veins,
Lacing those vigilante fists,
Pounding the air,
With a terrorizing frenzy.
Parched throats gasp,
In a sea of swimming bodies,
Limbs entwined,
Swaying to the silent melody,
Of long-awaited liberation.