Nightmares that Eat You Alive

A dedication to Hanna Lalango and many other victims and survivors of gender based violence. (Audio recording included).

When darkness swallows light

And the predators come out in day or night

And a girl and a woman’s plight

Begin to dim along with everyone’s sight

 

When a perpetrator casts his demonic gaze

When families silence the related craze

When a community justifies these ways

And a nation writes it off as just another faze

 

When the Hanna stories begin to fade

Amidst the ebb of a sensationalized tirade

And the will that mobilized an anti-violence crusade

Becomes ever more short and delayed

 

When the violence continues its sophistication

And we suffer from dialogue starvation

And change seekers are stunted in frustration

For a lack of engaged followers with equal consternation

 

When rapes are not recognized until they are deadly

When our attention is not swayed amidst a violent medley

And she is told she asked for it in any case

When she walked out the door with a naked base

And walked into a drugged maze

 

When we get stuck in nonsensical speculation

Departing from the truth in question

And we suffer from moral castration

And practice concern deflation

And our continued silence is an abomination

Then we might as well confess

That we are all the living dead – existing in self-induced damnation

– Billene Seyoum Woldeyes (November 26,2014)

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Love & Light