Blackout

By Bänoo Zan
Przemek Polakiewicz

It is blackout
It is bloodout

I can’t get through

The fences are fences
The guns are guns
The people are people

I can’t hear gunshots
but I can’t forget

I can’t smell tear gas
but I can’t forget

I am far away
but I won’t go away

Bodies left to bleed
in blackout news
will not go away

This shower is blood—
the rain I need—
to rinse memory clean

but memory wakes
to streets on fire
with freedom dance

It is blackout
It is bloodout

I can’t get through
but I can’t go away

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