Parallel Trails by Keron Niles
Parallel Trails,
Parallel ails,
Parallel tracks,
Parallel facts.
Parallel.
Having features that correspond,
Parallel situations.
Continuously at the same distance from each other,
Parallel lines.
Walking the lines drawn by those gone before us,
Parallel trails.
Parallel,
Never meeting,
No crossing,
No harmony,
No unity,
Never realizing
That unity can never damage
The individuality,
The uniqueness,
Of a culture.
Thus, we tread the lines,
Never identifying,
Our treading, our walking,
As the problem.
Parallel behaviour
Is the problem.
Parallel behaviour
Is ignoring those whose hair type doesn’t match yours,
Parallel behaviour
Is seeing your skin colour as superior,
Parallel behaviour
Is denying love to those that don’t look like you
That don’t dress or act like you,
Parallel behaviour
Is the standard set by those gone before you.
Parallel
Trails of tears and blood
Have fed the soil on which we live,
Perpetuating seeds of hope
For change in the way we raise those we nuture;
Hope,
Of intersection in the future.
Parallel minds
Will never acknowledge
Honour in the ratification of the traditions
Of our forefathers.
Parallel minds,
Will never recognise
That the only constant tradition,
Of all men,
Is change.
Parallel minds,
Must be relinquished
And discarded.
Lest we all die of the same ails,
Lest we all perish on parallel trails.
*** Poems taken from: “Black Grease: a discourse in expository poetry on equal opportunity. Written by Keron Niles.
© 2004 Keron Niles.
