Janette Hoppe #14 Circles (2)

rua.
life is made up of circles
and cycles
you're born, you live, you die.

I fear for my brown skinned baby boys
growing up in this world
the judgement, the anger, the pain,
guilty until proven innocent
it has always been this way

born into a world
where you're measured
on the colour of your skin
not the content of your character

my brown skinned boys will live
never knowing true freedom
incarcerated from cradle to grave
just like their ancestors -
enslaved,
enslaved by a system
that continues to repeat the cycle
you're born, you live, you die.

and all I can hope is for my boys
not to end up another statistic
of Maori boys incarcerated

one Maori boy, two Maori boys,
three Maori boys....four

let's break the cycle before there is more
and more Maori behind the wire.