Sudan Up Straight

Chant your songs
unheard before
we’ve whispered too long
in safe places
and dark corners
and found
that oppression rides
on waves of silence
and whips the backs
of downturned faces

So today
we are not stooping low
the sun will find us
standing straight
a slice of courage
for those who have died
and loaves of it
for the living
we’ll rip our chorus
into the tremble of silence
and hold tight, hold tight
for the pain that is coming

Tomorrow, when we come out again
may we still be actually awake
may we have again this courage of today
chanting songs and holding lights up
see and be seen.
Here I am. Here I am.
Up straight. Up straight.
I stand with you Sudan.

For Sudan
© Iz Mazano 2019
Photo: Alaa Salah during a protest in Sudan, April 2019
Photographed by Lana H. Haroun (@lana_hago)