Unity's all we ask or need

Going through old poems, I find this one and feel like putting it here for some reason

Unity’s all we ask and need

For Rudy Lewis.

On April 1^st, 2009, the British police, acting under orders, attacked peaceful demonstrators with batons, causing one death.

Have we, in some small way,

earned battle colours here?

We rainbow whites, greens, reds, browns

have faced the violence of the

ones clothed all in black,

caught in this clash between

provocateurs and servants of authority,

not of the people.

Unity’s all we ask and need.

One blow’s enough to make us bleed.

Will you now give us your hand

brothers, who have for centuries

suffered the baton blow, the whip lash

and stinging disrespect?

Will you extend to us

the hand of brotherhood,

we offering to you this token blood

that stains our faces, and the London streets?

To you, this was a passing slight,

You’ve been corralled for centuries, not hours

and we were beaten for our thoughts,

not for the colour of our skin.

Unity’s all we ask and need.

One blow’s enough to make us bleed.

And will you, the ones the Nazis

kettled in Warsaw and worse

Auschwitz and Buchenwald

Will you now listen to our song?

Unity’s all we ask and need.

One blow’s enough to make us bleed.

And you, who live in terror of the Nazis’

victim’s sons, will you reach out to us

extend the hand of friendship for our wounds,

hear what we have to say?

Unity’s all we ask and need.

One blow’s enough to make us bleed.

And will you, yes our brothers

dressed in black, faces masked,

you with your shields and clubs

to use on undefended flesh,

Will you not start to question why,

Why are these voices to be blocked?

What are they calling for?

Why are these dreamers such a threat?

Unity’s all we ask and need.

One blow’s enough to make us bleed.

© Richard Lawson

2009