Tag: colonialism

To Be Irish And Free

.Reading time 2 minutes.
To be Irish and free
Is this a part of our history 
That we could call a break with the past
Coz it’s been nigh on 1000 years since the last
Time empire didn’t darken our door 
And I couldn’t wish for anything more
Than the heart that beats in my chest
For the rest 
Of the world that still labours under
The sound of that thunder
As it quakes ground 
With artillery or the sound
Of the machinery of the day
Because they want to take away
All that we have come to know
But Love does not let us go
In spite of all the trouble 
And it is no bubble
That we just fell into 
It is the heritage we were born to 
Embody
And already
I can see the dawn
When the tendrils have withdrawn 
From their occupation of lands
And the dust and the sands
Yield no harvest
But I divest 
Myself of the poverty
And say all beings should be free
Of the mighty weight of bowing down 
And the water will not drown 
It will only nourish and refill 
What the darkness tried to kill
And it’s not a personal sin
It is just a deviation from Him
And the persecution dies
As the whole world tries
To shift the narrative 
And it is imperative
That we do not tolerate
What we’ve come to know as hate
As it darkens the door 
That has come to shatter on the floor
But the light just pours through
And it’s from within me and you 
There is no us and them 
There’s just a mistake we can’t make again

The Broken Wall

.Reading time 1 minute.
Are our memories so short that we could call this history 
And the mystery 
Of the Emerald Isle 
Is how we survived the trial 
Of invasion 
And the abrasion 
Still shows in galactic consciousness 
As we struggle to address 
The appropriate evil to compensate
For why we were in that state
It seemed like there was nothing we could do 
Except rebel, rebel 
But it was a kind of hell 
As they starved the land of its people 
And we replaced futility with a steeple
And prayed to a God we knew not of
Because only Divine Love
Could be our salvation
As we were collateral damage for a nation
Who’s only goal was empire 
And I wonder they never tire 
Of the chains they induce
And they seduce 
The whole world with their lies
And now it tries 
To deceive again 
Because in the realm of men
Killing and war are necessary
But children are not an accessory
To the damage you do 
Yes, I am talking to you
You equivocate
And evaluate
What you do by some measure
But your treasure 
Is not to be found in the blood of the young
Or a people to succumb
To what you want to achieve
I know you believe 
In what you say
But I see another way
To mend the broken wall
Try letting the damn thing fall

From The River To The Sea

.Reading time 3 minutes.
They chant the verse 
And I rehearse
For my own tune to own
My, how the flowers have grown
On this land
Where the empty sand
Used to hold the bones
And the stones 
Of what once were homes
Of those who emigrated 
Or died in the peat bogs evacuated
And they call it An Ghorta Mhor 
But let me whisper to you, a stór 
That it was a genocide
As they starved the ones who died
Just so they could export their grain
Grown on a ground green with rain
And the invisible hand
Of economics understand
That you cannot intervene 
Or you will shatter the dream 
That says that individuality
Brings about the best reality
And is a self balancing axis 
Now, we’re watching equivocation pay our taxes
And export our problems to a foreign scene 
And there may no longer be a queen
Who says who gets to live or die 
But Elizabeth nodded her head to those who cry
In memory of those slain
Do you think that I forget the pain
Just because I’m young and free
And no one has ever harmed me 
In the way that is described 
By the history books I pried 
From my own fingers, harrowed to the core
And it’s not happening anymore
Here
But I fear
That a child bombed by the IDF 
Has no chance to call for the ref
To call an end to the game
Coz the sides aren’t level and if it’s all the same
I’d rather not watch the slaughter
Of someone’s son or daughter
To satisfy regality
I’ve had enough of that to destroy me 
Being Irish on Celtic soil
There were years I felt my blood boil 
At the memory of what had been done
Now I am the one
Who can speak up to say
This is not okay
And if you make rubble out of homes
You poison your own stones
As they’re thrown into the pit
It’s not something I can sit with 
And just say it’s the way things are
We are all warmed by the same star 
And it heats every grain of sand 
It is not limited to the realm of man 
But to all of God’s creatures
To the expression of nature’s features 
As it turns on us to express
That we cannot suppress
The sacred feminine within
Just to satisfy the man that would win
The war
You want a reason but what for?

My Studies

.Reading time 3 minutes.
I wanted to be ready when the time came
So I studied hard and made my name 
On the college scene 
As someone who knows how to dream 
And I did business studies then politics
International relations to call it quits
And I only did so so
But I’m not here to excel in what you want me to know
I want to know the frame of mind
That means we can leave 80% behind 
When we talk about the global north
And we dream of sipping tea on our front porch
Without realising the claim to land 
Is something the poor can’t understand 
Coz farmers in India barely survive
And many don’t want to be alive
At the subsistence rate
Save the kids from the parents fate
Is what they state 
When asked in a questionnaire 
And I know it isn’t fair
But isn’t that just life, they say
But what if it doesn’t have to be that way
I see another path
One where God’s wrath
Is not the standard bearer 
And no carer 
Goes unpaid 
Just so that girl “slayed”
In an instagram post
But you look like you’ve seen a ghost
But maybe it’s just the starving frame
Of a child in Africa - always the same 
Isn’t it
And your quick wit
Won’t absolve you from 
The privilege you’re holding wrong 
So I must write to make it okay
And who will listen to what I have to say
If I say it on my own 
But the colours that the prism has thrown 
Has shown 
Me that there is another might
Than the dark of night 
And that a dawn to break 
Is the place where the people wake 
And see that their brother is their friend
And their neighbour must make amends 
With who he’s come to be
And every child is born free
To a woman in our history 
Or a non binary folk 
Must we make the weak carry the yoke 
And pull the weight up the hill
Does a country have the right to kill 
Its own citizens or its enemies in fields
In martial arts the one who yields 
Is the one who the wind blows with 
And the flow is not something that can stick 
To the pan when you’re flipping eggs
Don’t say that we’ve made our beds

The Complicity

.Reading time 1 minute.
I can’t stand in complicity
Then say I stand for humanity
Because I give money to charity
For people in foreign lands
Who land has turned to sands
But I cannot countenance the destruction
Of a Western aided genocide
And just go along for the ride
That is sold to us on TV
That to defend yourself is the right of the free
And that terrorism
Is the great schism 
Of our times
And war crimes
Can go unnoticed
Because we have voted
These people in 
And the one who win
Has the right to say
That it is okay 
To drop tonnes of dynamite 
On people who have no way to fight
Back and protect what they own
But the seeds have been sown
By colonial occupation
And you cannot just change the station
And pretend it is not happening 
Whether you are left or right wing
Because you are uneducated 
Get a phone and erase what you’ve stated
And find a way to bridge the gap
If you don’t know the way then find a map
And don’t believe the lines of paper
That would tell you you have to hate her
For love to be real
Is colonialism another word for steal?