lives
need opening
room to breathe
silent no more, in
the streets, witnesses we are
citizens, we are
citizens, we ask
for truth, justice, a way: the
way that was promised
that was promised in
all those lofty words: where is
the living of them?
the living has become
the dying, dying, fathers
mothers daughters sons
we are
I looked back at my post from December 2016 and realized, like my repeated reblogs of earlier words and images after each new mass shooting, there is little new to add to these images and words.
Our world, our country, our communities, are caught in a tape loop of unaddressed violence, injustice, unkept promises, fear, abandonment, poverty, chaos, greed, and despair. We need a lot more than thoughts, prayers, and tweets from our leaders to build a better world.
K. 
We are caught in a vicious cycle that must end.
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It has to Ken. We can’t keep on this way.
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Agreed.
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I hope this movement doesn’t just end up in a Democrat/Republican slanging match, but that the corrupt really are weeded out, the criminals punished, and some new leaders with new ideas step up.
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I hope so too Jane. Otherwise we are doomed.
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More central government, less choice left to the little men with a big shiny sherrif’s badge and a head full of nastiness.
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So much nastiness everywhere.
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I lived during the civil rights movement and have been writing for social justice since I was fourteen. I am so extremely discouraged that I am at the end of my life and am living through times I never thought would be this bad. Sigh. Your post is spot on.
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Thanks Sherry. It’s true. The sheer meanness ignorance and greed in our leadership right now is incomprehensible to me. And it flows right down to the bottom feeders…
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Reblogged this on Frank J. Tassone and commented:
#Haiku Happenings #5: K’s encore of her December 2016 haiku sequence!
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Thanks Frank.
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My pleasure, K. Your sequence works perfectly for my #Haikai Challenge this week: http://frankjtassone.com/2020/05/31/haikai-challenge-141-5-31-20-justice-haiku-senryu-haibun-tanka-haiga-renga/
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Thanks Frank. I’ll link it up later.
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Wow. This poem and drawings are powerful and emit their own beauty of protest for freedom. I wish more people could see it.
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Thanks Myrna. It’s depressing that the same thing keeps happening over and over and there is never any real change in behavior.
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Love that last line! I advocated for civil and human rights in junior high school and forward. That means I have advocated for over 50 years of my life. And what has changed? It keeps going under and then resurfacing. It’s time to deal with this stuff once and for all. If we are to truly call ourselves the land of the free, which I have long thought to be a bit of a joke.
This:
Cheers, Kerfe
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Thanks Bela. Yes, “free” is relative, and getting more so.
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It is.
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