image source: pixabay.com
THE DEATH OF INJUSTICE
You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. – Maya Angelou
You are hatred; a waste product of bigoted beliefs; preaching and perpetuating a culture of patriarchy – a deadly disease. You are the stench of senseless slayings, maker of melancholia, the heart black with rot.
You are the (sad)istic cis-tem
that delight in a mother’s torment. The death-dealing hands of conviction. You are the thief of pride, of blooming futures. Planter of sorrow, seizing tomorrows. You are the hazy horror that renders loved ones speechless; the uninvited grief that enters without knocking. You are the seed of loathing that will stop sprouting, that will meet its defeat at the ends of justice, perish of its own prejudice.
Ashraf Booley is a Cape Town-based freelance content marketing professional and poet, who has a passion for advocating for the rights and well-being of the LGBTI community. He loves to cook (and eat out) and his poetry has been published locally and internationally, appearing in the likes of New Contrast, American Writers Review, New Coin, LitNet, Aerodrome, Botsotso, Daily Maverick, Badilisha Poetry X-Change, Word n Sound, and Poetry Potion. He’s a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow and the president of Impulse Group’s first chapter in Africa — Impulse Cape Town — which forms part of a global social movement that promotes healthier lifestyle choices in the LGBTI community.