A Nigerian's dirge for Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown

All over the world, there have been protests over a resurgence in racism, especially against the black race. This real or imagined racism upsurge is as unfortunate the era of black slavery that the world is yet to fully recover from.

It is unfortunate that the recent cases of racist killings involve law officers. But even worse is the fact that it is happening in the United States — supposedly the 'land of the free.'

For many people, it i easy to just sigh and look it over like any other piece of bad news.

But as humans, it is our responsibility to speak out and condemn what is not right.

The killing of young, unarmed people is a crime, whether or not they are black!

Here is my dirge for these lost lives...

“HANDS UP”, “DON’T SHOOT”

"don't shoot"

“officer, see, my hands are both up

lower your gun, my hands won’t drop”

but the lawman's gun remained pointing

soon, desperate bullets it began spurting

so the raised hands drop earth lost a soul

wasted, cheated...soon to fill a six-feet hole

one bullet, one choke-hold

a life ends, without being old

"why are you following me?"

it was dark, laddie was scared

the man that stalked him neared

he stopped to face what he feared

alas, he was by Zimmer-bullets pierced

an eager vigilante with many itching fingers

pulled a trigger ... now the hooded soul lingers

one bullet, one choke-hold

a life ends, without being old

"i can't breathe"

uniformed hands grappled him

losing breathe he hummed a hymn

as he muttered to deaf ears “please

I can’t breathe” give me some release

deaf ears remained deaf, a soul was lost

because a cop was in his rabid power lost

one bullet, one choke-hold

a life ends, without being old

one moment alive, the other dead