Some of the poems have been turned into songs: ‘Write it – Ignite it’ and ‘Beat The Borders’
Content:
SLAVES OF US
LADY, YOU ARE SAFE WITH ME
SIX STEPS
CAVE CANEM
THIS IS YOU
LOOK WHO’S HERE
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
ON THE BRIDGE TO STRASBOURG
INTO THE RED ZONE
BLUE LATEX GLOVES
WHY STILL ASK WHY
WRITE IT – IGNITE IT
BEAT THE BORDERS
Video: Write it – Ignite it – recorded as protest against prosecution on charges of ‘incitement’
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcTGdfVAkCM[/embedyt]
SLAVES OF US
Let’s forget about those enslaved by us
They’re not really here
They are not really there
They are the unseen
They’re not even between
a wall of concrete
and a door one way open
Not even between us, the unseen
They are nameless, faceless
Criminals, hookers, don’t have any papers
They are ‘they’ – they are nowhere and all over the place
Say they’ve been stripped whipped ripped and clipped
But they are no slaves of mine
’cause I am not feeding
And they’re not the slaves of my neighbour
’cause he’s not needing
So let’s forget about those enslaved by us
We don’t really know about it
Can not even be proud of it
We are the ones clean
The ones that never have been
nor judge nor jury
at the gallows of starvation
Not one us has seen
all those nameless and faceless
We are builders, colonists, traders
We are ‘we’ – we are everywhere and on top of it all
We’re the ones used and accused but excused
’cause they are no slaves of us
They simply don’t exist
They pretend, offend, they intend to take over
all that we’ve built for us
So how can they be slaves of us
as their shackles are made of cotton
As our mercy is forgotten?
All they do is prey on us
Lean on us, invade us
That’s why they are no slaves of us
We are even prepared to pay
just to make them go away
Sure we will pay to
forget about those enslaved by us
LADY, YOU ARE SAFE WITH ME
Lady,
you are safe with me
like money in a bank
Do not be ashamed for me
In me you can confide
I am the good guy
the law on my side
I’ll listen
I’ll write
We’ll make a report
So
you thought you were promised
by these men,
a career in the spotlights,
in dressing room mirrors
where the face of a poor girl
would soon fade away
behind glamourous make up
You were one of the lucky girls
to escape the stripped land
to escape the sick water
The rape, the stoning, the razorsharp knife
So
you thought this was
your opportunity to make it
An airway to freedom
paved with drifting clouds
You’d send
money home to mama
A flow of finances
laced with lipstick
and ‘wish you well’s’
So
you dug up the coins
you had secretly saved
in a hole in the ground
to pay for the trip
You could earn the rest later
as soon as you got settled down
in a furnished appartment Up-Town
High above the dirt
Windows so large
you’d forget they were there
and the light in the sky
would forever change the eye
of the innocent child from the wild
and her coconut smile
So
you came here
in a box of death,
You’d been wondering
why everyone else kept so quiet
So quiet
They
must have been tired
Must have been afraid
They must have been told
not a sound to make
So you figured
you just had to wait
So
you woke up
when they opened the truck
and told you
that you were there
in this world where
the rain was made of champagne
where all of your misery
would soon be forgotten
in the rush of
the hush new reality
And in that truck
was this familiar smell,
And in that truck
there was no-one that could tell
where you came from
But hey,
You were there!
and from now on
all you had to do was to
Just follow the man
You lost your bag
You lost your cash
You lost your sense of direction
You lost your passport
You lost your rags
You lost but soon would win
Just trust the man
’cause you’re exotic
A special brand of ‘bush bush bitch’
So
you were given new underwear
Unworthy of a girl like you
You were given a new name
for whitey easy to pronounce
So
you thought
you’d be a model
You were chosen
to parade down the aisle
You would be rewarded
by this body builder Caucasian male
with a hairy chest
Bad breath
Bad manners
So
you wanted to leave
To walk away from
all you were afraid to become…
But you never did walk away
and there were many more
teeth-missing nose-dripping
smelly-feet unzipping burping
filthy-fingered crude-no-rubbers-creatures
for you in store
until all that was left of you
was what I see before me
A bony clap spreading prostitute
Worth nomore
than five bucks
for a blow job given
in a dark corner
of a sleazy establishment
to young kids,
still the smell of
yesterday’s diapers
babylotion children
that could learn from you
what women are for
You would still be there,
swollowing,
If it wasn’t for us
But
we want to catch the big boys
the ones with the balls and the bills
So we need you
We need your statement
So you need us
to read to you
what you just said
and to tell you
where to sign
Lady,
you are safe with me
like a package in the mail
What did you say your name was?
We’ll make a report
We’ll make them pay
their taxes
And we regret
to have to inform you
that there is no way
that you can stay
in our nation
of liberty and equality
without a work-permit,
without a curriculum vitae,
without a proper address
This case is closed
and so are the frontiers
that you
unlawfully crossed
SIX STEPS
See her walk the rope
Dancing on the edge of failure
See how well she can cope
See her sway and nearly fall
Hear the audience sigh
to see her again standing tall
Watch the grip of her feet
Follow the steps of an antelope
See how she stands the heat
See her arms open up wide
See how she laughs at us all
See her jump, slip and slide
See the way she looses her fear
Towards the end, now within reach
Watch the people cheer
Hear the clapping of their hands
Witness the death of a stranger
When in triumph she safely lands
CAVE CANEM
Who would want a dog like me?
My body smells like putrefied meat
I show my bloodstained teeth as I grin
I drool when I’m watching you eat
Ulcers on my back are bursting
and while I scratch my jagged ears,
flees jump on your precious sofa
I’m the worst of all your fears
Give me a name and a place by the fire
where I can shake the dirt from my coat
You’ll feed me, I’ll shit on your carpet
You’ll kick me, I’ll jump at your throat
Give me a crust of moulded bread
and I will keep coming back for more
But if you throw me stones instead
I still won’t stay away from your door
A dangerous disease is waiting on your porch
A crippled stray dog barking all night
I’ll embarrass you, excuse me for living
Just kill me if you can’t stand the sight
Put me in a cage and get it over with
It’s the only solution, you know it’s true
But you can’t do it ‘cause you’re so sophisticated
So I’ll languish in your garden and spoil your view
THIS IS YOU
This is you
A scratch in your face
skin screaming
words bleeding with a cry
A taste of today’s pain
burning screetching
words with nails
in your face, sharp
You don’t run
You come winning
Love again beginning
with my kiss on
the scratch on your cheek
The mark that is
the price of pride
Lightning in your eyes
sets fire to you and me
Sets on fire those words
burning overturning
She’s afraid
the woman in front of you
she might be like you and me
Don’t see it – Don’t feel it
the likes of us – Dykes
Imagine that!
‘You’d be better off raped!’
Words in her fingers
like gunpowder
Words in the hands
of a lady trying to shoot
a hole in our hearts
And you – Sick of it
Don’t take that shit
Not putting down
the bags in your hands you went
harmless – You spelled
‘What’s y’r beef?’
Then
Polished nails
The scratch in your face
This is you – Standing up
and we walk once again
We wonder once again
Why the fight once again
for love once again
LOOK WHO’S HERE!
Last night I tried to disappear
on the wings of a blackbird, singing in the park,
hidden between the leaves of an oak tree
It was shortly before dark as I sat between it’s feathers,
filled with expectation
Only then I understood
the meaning of it’s song, it sang
Here you don’t belong
Last night I tried to disappear
in the hole of a mole that I thought would be blind, wouldn’t mind
but there I went wrong
Your sweat reeks of death, it said
Your hair smells like burning grass
Your dung smells bad, like battery acid
And then, so politely, it asked me to leave
Shivering with fear when it did
Last night I tried to disappear
in the nest of a goose between it’s youngsters and I thought
She’d be a mother and good to me, as well as to the others
Her wings so protective, her beak so giving,
turned out to be weapons that no man can handle
She slapped me, she kicked me
She picked at me, went after me
and I was
Swimming like a little kid, splashing
Screaming for help in the middle of the night
Ducks sadisticly quacking at the sight
Last night I tried to disappear
following a straycat to a doorstep where it knew it would be fed
Leftovers so easy to get
Thought we could be friends, roaming the streets
It would be so romantic
Let’s go hunt mice, I said
She scratched me
Go Away! Go and Play! You clumsy kitten!
You won’t last a single day
Last night I tried to disappear
between bats circling, shooting through the air
after insects, dinner whirling
My radar was sharp I thought
as I hit my head on a tree
Found myself in the mud
Saw the bats leave without me
Last night I tried to disappear
in the voice of an owl to be carried away a long distance
Be the vibration
Be the shivering of my skin
The owl, irritated, caughed and swollowed me instead
Then I thought I had done it, I would finally disappear, but
the owl threw up and spit
I found myself twisted between the remains of an unfortune mouse
Bones, skull, hair
Dawn
I proposed to a squirrel, it’s tail so playfully teasing me,
Follow me, follow me, it seduced me, I was sure of it
And I knew we could share just about everything and be One
Yes
I proposed to a squirrel but it rejected me, saying
You’re a poor thing
You don’t swing
After dawn
I was working with ants
I was one of them
In labour, in discipline
One with nature and at peace with myself
I’d be human nomore
I had finally succeeded I thought, but
The blackbird came along and he gave me away
He said
Well, look who’s here!
A man without fear
A regular hero and so sincere
He has been here all night
Interrupted our dinner, our songs, our flight
Now he thinks he can work here
and it will all be okay, the mess that he made,
that even now he creates by pretending
The ants, they looked at me ever so surprised
They all examined me, one by one, until they realised
This one indeed is a bit oversized
Last night I tried to disappear
to be wurm, to be nevermore responsible
Please, believe me, I plead
I am not really humanoid!
Please, I’m not like that!
The blackbird, it laughed and mocked me
It laughed for all to hear
Look who’s here!
Here is yet another one, trying to disappear
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
This war, it isn’t safe for our soldiers
Assassins crawling all over the place
It’s not even safe for our armored trucks
We keep sending the bodies back home
Bags with bones and flesh and blood
To be the heroes we need to create
It is part of our duty, the price that we pay
And the whole world is paying attention
as mothers and children cry, flags raised
As we pray for our martyrs, their honor
The just cause we pretend it to be,
this war to be played out inevitably
All so far away from our homes
claiming just another bare necessity
or mercy, peace, international ease
We can’t tell you that it is propaganda
but the truth of politics, it belongs to us
No interests, no secret agenda, say hush-
We’re only in it for the oil
We’re only in it for the soil
We’re in it for power, you know
Human rights? My ass! No show
To hell with them refugees
To hell with them deportees
To hell with these so called liberties
It ‘s only collateral damage, you see,
as another childs dream is blown to smithereens!
ON THE BRIDGE TO STRASBOURG
On the bridge
before the border
We are silent
with each other
There is no order
There is no law
on this here bridge
there is just awe
We are silent
for the courageous
We sit down
lay down our banners
…And the river carries
the dreams of all
Those that have died
Never reached the shore
And on this bridge
in the burning heat
on the asphalt road
Has someone cried?
We are on the verge
of crossing the border
It speaks of pain
in tongues of torture
Those who remember
been there before
at some other frontier
can tell you more
About loss of lives
of closing doors
The will to fight
as the ocean roars
…And the river carries
the dreams of all
Those that have died
Never reached the shore
Now the march begins
as we get up
to cross those borders
time and again
For time and again
the borders murder
No end to struggle
Carry on further
Just like that river
We carry the dreams
A tribute to freedom
A promise to keep
…And the river carries
the dreams of all
Those that survived
that have reached the shore
INTO THE RED ZONE
Into the Red Zone
The empty heart of the city of Brussels
Into the Red Zone
The EU parliament security Red Zone
Zone of democratic dictatorship
Center of equality it says
It has even won a price for
upholding human rights between
its high rise glass towering buildings
Mirrors in the face of forgotten children
But not facing it!
Walls and gates covered in cameras
protecting steel and concrete
But not life!
We are allowed
Into the Red Zone
For ten minutes
To ask
Whose human rights?
Equal is not the sans-papier
to the politician
Equal is not the refugee
to the business man
Zone of solidarity it says
Whose solidarity?
On the Mediterranean sea solidarity is
practiced by fishermen alongside
drowning victims lost in laws literally
Fighting Frontex
the almighty border agency
Human rights
are lying on the bottom of the sea
This is the dignity of the Red Zone rulers
They know nothing of the waves of fear
The depths of despair
The desert of loneliness
Theirs is the dignity on paper only
Theirs is the liberty to those of legal status
Others the liberty of poverty only
Justice it says
in all those languages the Red Zone represents
where justice is
Europeans only
Whites only
It is not in its borders
It is not in its prisons
It is not in its streets where the voiceless
meet and get together to go
Into the Red Zone
To state accusations
To find these words at the entrance of these
price winning institutions of legal murder
Equality
Solidarity
Liberty
Dignity
and
Justice
They are but words
in the Red Zone
In the Red Zone
Into the blood Zone
In the Red Zone
Into the dead Zone
BLUE LATES GLOVES
Blue latex gloves
They came turning my home
into a crime scene
Searching and investigating
my socks and my underwear,
the bed that we share
Blue latex gloves
going through my life,
my night and my day
Blue hands touching everything
All the letters I wrote,
postcards I received
Blue latex gloves
turning upside down the world
that used to be my place
Blue penetration in the name
of the law sniffing
bags, closets and books
Blue latex gloves
stealing and taking ’cause
they ‘got the right to do so’,
and nothing is mine no more,
my holiday pictures,
my intimate secrets
Blue latex fingers
feeling and interfering,
poking and photographing
An invasion, a dirty and dangerous
pest infestation came creeping in
wearing blue latex gloves!
These blue latex gloves,
they came to my door,
said ‘we got a warrant’,
them blue latex bastards!
They came busting in with
their cuffs and commands,
them blue latex gloves!
Every corner they slithered
Every picture they touched
Every drawer they peeked into
All of it contaminated
They never really went away
them blue latex gloves!
Turning my words into
evidence and all that I wrote
into crime, my pen and paper,
computer, keyboard and screen
Weapons to be confiscated
Soon them blue latex gloves
will come digging for more
They’ll strip all of us naked,
our flesh and our minds, ’cause
we are suspects to be analyzed
It is justice, and it’s wearing blue latex gloves
WHY STILL ASK WHY?
‘Why’ is the outcry to be heard from the inside
Yet another persons existence denied
‘Why’ is the outcry once and again
from yet another cell, who wants to understand?
‘Why’ is the question to be heard from the streets
again from more people that nobody greets
‘Why’ is the question today and tomorrow
from voices that rise to take no more sorrow
Why do we have to run and to hide?
‘Why’ gets no answer, not one single word
‘Why’ is a prison that deprives us of pride
Ask no longer why, it will not be heard
‘Why’ is to expect that someone will explain
that there is an honest reason and nothing is in vain
‘Why’ is to expect that there is fairness to it all
That somehow it is justice you stand behind that wall
‘Why’ is to place trust in the answer to be truthful
If ever it is given, it’s to deceive, it’s not useful
‘Why’ is to place trust in those on top and in power
that again keep you waiting, hour after hour
Why, if one’s disposable, a fugitive, nameless?
Why, if one is guilty just by being around?
Why then not fight when stateless and faceless?
If ever there’s a ‘why’ to be answered with a sound
..it is this one
Why take the hate, take the blame another day?
Why shake the hands of those that won’t be your friends?
There’s no reason why, but the fear that made you play
the game you will lose, that’s how it always ends
Why still ask why while time passes by?
Why still ask why while in the meantime you die?
Why still ask why while you know you don’t matter?
Why, ask yourself, things don’t get any better?
Because of the waiting, my friend,
for the question to never be answered
WRITE IT – IGNITE IT
Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
You better shut up – or we’ll lock you up
It is time to define we got the right to incite
Call out – Call out – Call out – Call out!
We gotta write it – ignite it
Burn the prosecution
and the ministry of justice!
We gotta light it and fight it
Burn down the profits
of the prisons, institutions!
Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
It is time now to fight – Don’t listen to the lies!
They make ya do time for a thought crime
Only one solution is to call out revolution!
One solution – Revolution!
Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
You better shut up – or we’ll lock you up
Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
Down with the nations – Stop deportations!
It is time to define we got the right to incite
Call out – Call out – Call out – Call out!
We gotta write it- ignite it
Burn the prosecution
and the ministry of justice!
We gotta light it and fight it
Burn down the profits
of the prisons, institutions!
Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
Down with the borders – Fuck law and order!
They make ya do time for a thought crime
Only – one – solution – is – to call out – revolution!
BEAT THE BORDERS
Who is telling us where to go and
where to stay and who says NO to
questions asked, permits applied for?
Who declared the immigrants war?
Who is standing in our way and
who is law and who is paid for
stamps to give, entrance denied to
those that tried to make it up here?
Who makes money and has a say in
who gets locked up, has to pay
for being here or being there and
either way nowhere is safe – Let’s..
Take no orders
Let’s beat the borders
Let’s cross the lines
Let’s ignore the signs
Who’s responsible, who is rich and
who is pulling strings, and which
politicians do not lie or cry them
crocodile tears when you die?
All they ever do is take, turning
people into slaves, turning slavery
into profit, turning profit into property
into poverty for you and for me!
There is no reason to obey, living
lives that lead to the grave
Let’s be standing in the way,
make a difference, start today – Let’s
Take no orders
Let’s beat the borders
Let’s cross the lines
Let’s ignore the signs