Zeca Afonso & Al Qabri Ramos

 

Deconstructing Prejudices

Compassion translated literally.

Empathy.

Keep the word. Reflect.

And turn to it, to your conscience

and when everything is burning,

on the 10th floor, see their attention

and credit.

Up there!

Down here, it is this rain

that marks the rhythm of the hours and

our hearts are fading in pain.

And you ask in prayer, without any shame

To God, without a glimpse of greed:

Exercise justice. Free them.

Weep for them, shout,

embrace and correct them.

Don't give demons a hug. Nor bread.

Exercise, then,

forgiveness and move on

Pay no attention to the weeds,

Rebuild yourself on the pillars

of humanity:

Empathy, Compassion

Exercise faith,

in permanence, and

in the face of difficulty, be a believer.

It is time to

deconstruct the past

in this present

in order to inaugurate

another verbal tense

where fraternity, equality

of opportunities and the blessed freedom

are the guarantor of civilization and not

of the sameness that we witness

with this word

of war and barbarity.