☾︎ 'tis the frost that has

lain vermilion down,

silencing many a million

dissented towns;

unwilling ears hear it like

the scream of thunder and

wrath from the sky,

'tis the frost that has seen all those faces battered in audacious fights,

till they fell to their own demise.

☾︎ memoirs one over the other,

inscribed with loss, grief and pain,

it's still the same battle since once upon a time; and they walk through all storms and hurricanes.

☾︎ 'tis the frost that clutches the wincing wounds but even it

should be terrified of you;

the caged bird still sings a fearful trill,

a day of may comes with misery still,

a promise that shattered

glass to mere scraps,

bleeding grounds and

cavernous traps,

w

e've all witnessed

humanity's greatest mishap.

☾︎ 'tis the frost that

has lain rebellions down,

silencing those who made

too much sound,

suffering still here and there now,

caged birds yearn for wanton grounds.

-

a/n around 2018, i had been sent to a "writing for peace" conference in another school as a representative. & i opted for theatre and the identity workshop. the woman who led the first one said something that always stuck with me.

she said, you should always speak your truth, and i never truly understood it at the time, given that i was 15 back then.

but she said her greatest regret was standing back when she saw injustice happening right in front of her eyes and she asked us to act out a situation that changed us forever.

it's been three years and as school has ended, i've met many new people, and i'm just finally realising that she'll always carry the regret of keeping quiet with her, everywhere she goes.

i apologize if this was way too long, but all i wanted to say is that sometimes, things happen in life where we feel like we aren't being heard, like we're being held back from what we believe in and we feel voiceless. and that is what i wanted this poetry to be about.

• considered the color of life, associated with blood because of the red color, and eternity. it carries with it the same symbolism as red - a power color also associated with love.

• 'the caged bird still sings a fearful trill' is from maya angelou's poetry 'i know why the caged bird sings'.

• 'a day of may comes with misery still,' - 25th May, 2020, may George Floyd rest in peace.

thank you for reading.