Whose voice, whose story?

“Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”

– African Proverb

I speak for the silent, or the silenced

I represent them with a desire intense

I speak on behalf of those who have been

Made to stay in the shadows, unseen

To work behind the scenes, toil without a sound

Create abundance from scarcity around

Abundance for others, while they stay

From all manner of opulence, far away

I speak for all those faceless women and men

Who build the material world, but lie forgotten..

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I am the voice of the oppressed

That reverberates with anger suppressed

I am the story that begs to be shared

Urgently, fervently, acutely aware

Of its morbid nature, unvarnished

But I resist any form of garnish

Let the story be rewritten and retold

In language unapologetic and bold

Erase the victor’s dominant narrative

Telling the victim’s story is imperative..