Villanelle 1 - "I can't breathe"

A plague was cast, fingers stealthy, will spread,

Inching through cracks in our blinkered walls,

Lives? - Inferior. They deserve to be dead.

Haggard and shaking, 'I can't breathe', he said.

Cries, shouts, curses and calls,

A plague was cast, fingers stealthy, will spread.

This ancient blight, through centuries, has led

on an army of coveting fools;

Lives? - Inferior. They deserve to be dead.

It twisted and lurched; with 'God's will' it sped,

blows and beatings, riots and falls;

A plague was cast, fingers stealthy, will spread.

And still it lurks, and still it stains red

the pavements where us 'equal citizens' crawl.

Lives? - Inferior. They deserve to be dead.

Oh wonderful world, 'Rule Britannia', they said

as they left the black man on the ground there, mauled.

A plague was cast, fingers stealthy, will spread;

Lives? - Inferior. They deserve to be dead.

copyright: @beawood