Don’t let the other say ‘I cannot breathe’,
We are all the same
We breath the same air
Whether fame or infame
We should treat one another fair.
Don’t let your neighbor say I cannot breathe
We should treat the other with care
Whether you are black, white, colored or brown,
Or whether you’re a janitor or you wear a crown
Let’s treat the other fair
Cause we breath the same air.
Now never let the other say I cannot breathe
Whether we fly by light
Or by day or night
Or live in a different village, town, country or continent
Or in a mansion, home or tent
We breath the same air
So treat one another fair.
Never let the other say I cannot breathe
Whether we travel by air land or sea.
We are all the same.
You see,
Amid an epidemic, we all cannot breathe
In the midst of war or human brutality
Or societal insanity,
During pollution
or environmental destruction
We all cannot breathe
Cause we breath the same air
That God gave for us to breath fair,
So please treat one another fair
And let not the other say, I cannot breathe.
Andrew Benson Greene Jr.
#WHO #UN #UnitedNations #Talenthouse #CovidOpenBrief #UNCovid19Brief #FlattenTheCurve #SafeHands #AloneTogether #ViralKindness #StopTheSpread #Coronavirus #Covid19
You brought upon our generation,
That’s one of the most brutal sovereignty,
Our world has ever seen.
It slowly started in twenty-nineteen
It slowly started in twenty-nineteen
Superseding the very worst of monarchies.
From the onset, you deployed the most destructive anarchy,
By dispatching the most ferocious and invisible viral army,
Which you sent out, to invade every country.
Forcing the world to watch the scenes of horror
Of this your shear rage and reign of terror.
We watched with timidity from a distance,
As borders and boundaries of countries, put up limited resistance.
We watched on TV and on the internet
Sometimes with interest or disinterest
As though to corroborate your reign of terror
Bearing witness to all your inhumane horror.
You quietly kept on spreading
Discreetly plundering
Moving quickly with a deadly sneeze.
Worming your way at a fierce ease,
Breathing out violence.
You brought an unusual strife
You brought an unusual strife
Quickly weeding humanity of its way of life
You forced us to obey a creed of a prolong lock-down
Mandated by your mysterious and deadly crown.
From the head of your crown,
To your furrowed face and frowns,
From your wicked silence,
Breathing out violence.
And just as we thought the spread could ease
The numbers suddenly increased.
You flew too quickly without notice of your baleful intent,
Breathing out violence.
Causing visible fear and resentment,
From Wuhan to the world and Italy,
Causing deaths that were untimely.
Now, when one part of the world sneezes,
We all might catch the cold, fever and chills.
A sign that for better or for worst
We are a connected world
And so, the world must collectively fight and stand tall
Against the momentary viral conquest,
For if we stay aloof, we are weakest
To a virus that has put to test
The wisdom of scientists,
Defying modern science even as doctors persist,
As they scurry and hurry
To invent and test the best vaccines,
To cure a virus that caused so many deaths, pain and grin,
The worst wages of sin
The world has ever seen.
In your silent terrorism,
You sneezed and coughed out blatant pessimism.
Breathing out violence.
You infected the lungs of the five continents
With your virus bloated with inconvenience.
Quickly blemishing our way of life
Breathing out violence,
Making an entire world walk in masquerades
Or else your virus could raid.
Masked men who scared the hell out in thuggery and robbery,
Are now outnumbered by all of us with our masks of unintended snobbery.
And in the very heat of the corona virus,
Mask come in various surplus
As though an unsolicited vogue
To keep away this viral virus rogue.
You surreptitiously walked the earth in vengeance,
Breathing out violence.
And so, your wicked crown mandated all to wear face masks
Which were once prohibited
But now publicly exhibited.
And now, it's our daily task
To adorn and exhibit face masks
That were once exclusively won by those in the medical field
To help doctors protect and shield
Patients who will endure
As doctors perform surgical procedures.
And the once familiar 'bless you'
That accompanies a sneeze
Has suddenly ceased,
For this is not your normal flu,
That affects only the unfortunate few
And so, in its place, 'bless you'
Has suddenly been replaced
by sudden bursts of scorns or rebuke
Or to some, a terrifying look.
Those brave health workers, too brave and smart in the medical field
Too bold to hold sway and yield,
They do not budge to the mantra to ‘stay home, stay safe’;
They came out in their numbers to stand the fight without a fright.
All the heroes; the front-line workers who will not budge-
They do not stay home but clocked the time and went to work,
And their examples could urge us not to dodge,
Our sense of duty but to be selfless and become our best,
To do our work with passion and zest,
To stay through without fright or flight.
For they do not go sleeping all night.
Restaurant workers, clocked in on time,
Took orders through drive-through all day and night.
Fire fighters and first-responders could be seen on sight
They could dash to the spot to answer to a call
they did not stay home when a person is sick or falls.
And quick-witted teachers kept on zooming
As Covid19 kept looming
They were quickly transitioning
And revolutionizing
The way they teach thereby encouraging their students in online learning,
Even as the corona virus kept roaming.
Now, Covid19,
You will never win,
Even as you detested our affection for social gathering,
Decreeing that we must abide by social distancing.
You calculated a six feet proximity,
So that we might forgo and loose our social affinity.
We will resist your vengeance
So that the world will stop breathing out violence.
Freedom Compromised
NEW! Poetry
US Poems by Andrew Benson Greene (Part of a collection of
Poems and experiences in USA)
1.
Freedom Compromised. (Written in May-August
2019).
At last freedom has been compromised
In the land of the free and brave.
If only the laws were not revised,
I will run towards the foot of ‘Lady Liberty’ with hopes to be saved.
And now from the bridges of New York to New Mexico.
I can walk and talk freely in the home of the free and brave
And listen to a volcano of voices that will re-echo,
What the ‘Founding Fathers’ in their true and distinct spirit gave.
There is a call to maintain the statuesqoe
In the home of the free and brave.
Where a throng will be lining up in search of a life of warm embrace.
From all ages and all races, not expecting to be disgraced,
Like a migrant -
Or an immigrant,
Like an asylee -
Or a refugee,
I will run towards ‘Lady Liberty’ with assurance of being saved.
But now, I wish freedom has not been diluted
In the land of the free and brave
And the minds of some in the land are no longer polluted
With draconian laws, now made even more grave,
In the home of the free and brave.
And ‘We the People’ are not divided into them versus us
But united in peace, freedom and a common cause
In the home of the free and brave.
In pursuit of freedom and liberty, the founding Fathers risked everything they had to create a new nation, and a more perfect union. Schools of thought predicted that had the American Revolution failed, each of them would have faced execution – and the loss of all their property, which would have condemned their wives and children to a life of poverty and penury. It was a heart- throbbing and remarkable gamble, because most of the Founding Fathers were already wealthy, successful men. Their rebellion against England was clearly not for personal enrichment for they truly believed that the loss of freedom was worse than death.
Through those sacrifices, the founding fathers and their vision was successful in removing the shackles of tyranny. And all along the way, Liberty’s lantern was their guiding light. That's what I invoked in the poem 'what the founding fathers in their true and distinct spirit gave.
The founding Fathers of the US fretted and were concerned about liberty, freedom, morality, patriotism, the republic, democracy, Constitutional law, and American Exceptionalism. One of the founding fathers John Adams was known to have cautioned and advised:
“You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it.”
Whilst -Benjamin Franklin could turn to the consolidating the hard-earned liberty
“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”
Truly believing in God's own liberty to man, Benjamin does not attribute freedom from man to man.
“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”
-Benjamin Franklin
It is in Hamilton that we see the true sacrifice in furtherance of the attainment of liberty
“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”
-Alexander Hamilton
In this poem, I alluded to a 'volcano of voices that will re-echo'; ... voices that include other freedom fighters like Martin Luther King, or individual activists, lawyers, unions, organizations fighting for all forms of freedom in the U.S.; for immigrants, refugees, Senators passing legislation that help assuage such infringement of freedoms etc
Volunteering Poem: My Hands Will Attend
Volunteering Poem: My Hands Will Attend
I stretched my hands to you
My heart with you too
In self-less service and sacrifice
I can do all that is wise
My energy goes to those afflicted with lethargy
In mind, body and soul.
For those who treat others with allergy
When entrusted with tasks, they will AWOL,
But will need to be told
That volunteering is an act of gold.
When there is no money or dividend
Few or no hands will attend
To the sick, the poor, the homeless
My hands will attend.
Andrew Benson Greene June 10th 2002
"This creative illustration of his work is a candid reminder of how far the country Sierra Leone has come through years of upheavals caused by wars and instability in post-colonial era, Ebola, economic hardship and the recovery and hope. Symbolized by the iconic imagery of the landmark 'Cotton Tree' this is a personified embodiment of pure resilience of what the country and its people are known for. But this piece of art even though a eulogy of the Cotton Tree, that 'stands tall and majestic' also goes into serve as a lesson for the country, it's people and leaders to not repeat the mistakes of the past"
