2020 VISION (2023)

By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

A pandemic
brought things
to a halt,
No vaccine no cure
no clues how caught.

Closest of kin
closest friends
passing on no warnings,
Like instant nightfall
from a bright sunny morning.

Shelter in place
nary a face
nor social gathering,
No clue
what to do
what tomorrow
might bring.

Schools closed
fearing common colds
on insanity’s edge many teetered,
Locked in
like locked up
onsets of cabin fever.

Then summer came
one name caught fire,
The straw that broke our backs
of police lynchings we’d grown tired.

A video gone viral
brought many into accord,
The world bore witness
to this lynching
his name George Floyd.

Cities erupted
the masses disrupted
business as usual,
For the powers that be
the thing that proved most unusual.

Was the racial unity
people the world over
joined in the melee,
Amerika’s false image shattered
couldn’t make the world unsee.

What for generations it devised
to hide
had always
lied and tried,
To portray itself as
fair and just
to all people
on all sides.

Now everyone knew
this place was no beacon of
hope,
It was a capitalist empire
with the rich man’s
knee in the whole world’s throat.

So the destruction
wasn’t random nor
smash and grab from stores,
But efforts to target the rich
status symbols burned by
the poor.

This was the vision
to end
class division
that 2020 brought forth,
Shining like a beacon
a light to freedom
like a star in the north.

The status quo was shaken
had to recover
had to stop it,
So it sent in civil rights fakers
ambulance chasers to coopt it.

The likes of Al “the Rat” Sharpton
and money sharks like Ben Crump,
Black versions of
opportunists like
Donald “the Nazi” Trump.

Bereaved families were
diverted into courtroom
theater,
To settle accept a check
to absolve the
creators.

Of all our suffering our pain
our poverty our losses,
Manipulating the workers
to reconcile
with the bosses.

With a bit of police
coercion and diversions on the side,
The people were ordered off
the streets
their energy spent
they complied.

So it was back
to the old
class exploitation and
racial division,
But for a minute
we saw through the bullshit
we all had
2020 vision.