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The man lying on the pavement pleaded,

“I can’t breathe, give me some water.”

Parched lips waited for

A few drops of life.

“Mama, help me.”

The knee

Crushing his windpipe and vertebra.

In that Fearful,

Stagnant,

Eight minutes and forty-six seconds

Humanity

Choked, gasped and cracked in eternity.

He

Pleaded and cried again

“Give me some water, man.”

Pain and fear in his eyes sweated on his skin.

There was no remorse,

No response from

The man kneeling on the

Strangulated neck.

I watched by the wayside,

I watched a fellow human,

Being crushed and killed

With indifference and apathy.

Why did I not say “No, you can’t do this”?

Then,

I looked at my skin

And I saw a broken rainbow.

A rainbow

That has been there for hundreds of years,

And I choked

For the knee of the dominant was on my throat too.

My tears and fears

Don’t make sense to the others who

Watch and whisper

Till I too choke and perish.

I wept,

My cheek soaked up the

Tears of the

Lonely,

Isolated,

And the helpless.

I realise my silences of yesteryears

Will choke me today,

And will haunt my silent tomorrows.

How do I ask forgiveness?

To whom shall I plead for pardon?

Who can absolve me of my guilt?

For the indifference I showed.

But,

When the colours of my race

Merge into an inevitable blur,

I shall sing

“I am brown, he is white

And you are black

But our blood is red.”