OMAR PHOENIX KHAN
Systemic Muzzle
Patience we’re told. Change is not the solution now
Take time. No need to break the institution now
What’s going on? There’s picket lines, and picket sounds
Police brutality and state oppression now
We’ve tried the inquiries and recommendations
The masters’ tools will not build resolution now
They say we’re equal, then do profit not people
Justice for Grenfell, we need prosecution now
Don’t just piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining
Talk is cheap we demand your contribution now
Your jibe and their joke about snowflake or woke won’t
Silence our unveiling of persecution now
I beg you, look through their lies, sisters and brothers
Only the few gain from polarisation now
Rich are getting richer; poor are getting poorer
They’ll do their best to distract your attention now
Don’t just accept the convenient nostalgia
Start the process of decolonisation now
Let’s emancipate ourselves from mental slavery
There’s a long way to go before redemption now
Some say, they’re winning. Dividing us to conquer
Banking on the lack of unification now
Even in burning, we rise, a phoenix aflame
Don’t you know? I’m talkin ‘bout revolution now
Omar exists in the inbetween. Theory and practice, brown and white, hope and despair. Inside, forever on the outside. Sky Arts RSL ‘Shortlisted Writer for Non-Fiction’ 2021 and Critical Criminologist from Medway, UK.