How can we celebrate
at a time like this?
How can we dance
when the choreography
of their bodies
will never again sway
to the rhythm of the drums?
How can we laugh
when all our mouths can remember
is how to scream?
Who shall live and who shall die?
Such a cruel joke
written by men
impersonating God.
What is the rhyme,
what is the reason
for the silencing of a song?
You can tell me
but I won’t believe you.
And still, here we are again
clutching to an ancient book
that has traveled through time
from bitterness to joy
from thriving to destruction
and back again
meeting us once more
to ask us for this dance.
