Amandla! Poem by Marshall E Gass

Amandla!

Locked in societies cages where the sunlight streaked in with
black and white uniforms with bars and batons
to hold them in place
shackled to their destines
to die in policies polluted by skin and colour
these people fought against
The oppressors determination to reduce
An entire nation to subservience
Until one man swam against the apartheid tide
To a prison of meaning.

At last in the wide open spaces
Where freedom grew with the flowers
With chains of people dancing in the streets
Of hope in the future

Alas the high tide turned against
Them and those at the front row who lead
The back row to brutality soon found
The dancing invited the shackles again
And they all locked themselves in the same suffering
As before, one by one.

Except no one they could blame somebody else
but his own black brother.
© Marshall Gass. All rights reserved.