Rise Up, Rise Up (October 7, 2019)

Do you know

Why I'm crying?

Tears slide down

Streaking my face

In frustration.

Where walking is

Act of defiance

Against prejudice.

Which you claim

My very presence

Is causing.

As your entitlement

Base on hate

And ignorance

Is stripped away.

One layer

At a time.

Laying bare

The emptiness

Of your actions/words

Towards others.

Who challenge

Your dogmatic faith

With love and compassion.

Knowing

Freedom time 

Has come.

Therisa © 2019  

Author’s note: The following Toronto event, on September 28, 2019, inspired this poem: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/09/28/christian-groups-march-into-gay-village-leads-to-showdown-with-lgbtq-supporters.html

The True Toronto (July 25, 2018)

Second time

This year

Toronto is mourning

Senseless mass murder

Of its citizens.

Maelstrom of emotions

Fills the city

From anger to sadness

As we learn

Victims’ age and names.

People are asking

What motivates someone

To randomly attack

Total strangers.

Who are out

With family and friends

Enjoying warm summer night

At local restaurants

And coffee shops.

Greatest fear is

We'll isolate ourselves

Into ethnic ghettos

Where strangers are viewed

Possible security risks.

I live

In the east end

Of the Danforth.

Where one can find

An Ethiopian supermarket

Nestled beside

A shop selling hair products

And services

To Afro-Canadians.

Further down the street

One finds shops

Catering to Toronto's

Southeast Asian Muslims

And Italian restaurants/social clubs.

The Danforth is

An avenue of immigrants

Intermixing together

Uniting the current wave

With previous ones.

Learning from each other

Blending cultures

Still retaining

Our identity

Of who we are.

Real life

Mosaic portrait

Of an emerging Toronto

Built on understanding

And not fear.

Therisa © 2018

Author’s note: Just some thoughts about the Greektown shootings and my section of the Danforth.

Brutal Reminder (July 23, 2018)

What madness

Possesses a person

To murder others?

Question

Toronto is asking

After deadly night

In Canada's largest city.

Witnessing two victims

And shooter dead

From bullet wounds.

Additional grief

Twelve other victims

Scattered across

Numerous Toronto hospitals.

Has reason and logic fled?

Leaving us

Citizens of Toronto

Nothing more

Than killing brutes

With nihilistic tendency?

First thought is

Violence against those

Perceived to anger us

With real or imagined slight?

Turning upon ourselves

Like a rabid animal

That needs to be put down

For society's safety.

Have we desensitized

Ourselves

Regarding violence

Through video games

And other mass entertainment?

To these questions

I've no ready answers

Other than

Shedding sorrowful tears.

Wishing

I wasn't writing this

Or reading eyewitnesses’ accounts

Of last night tragedy.

As Toronto grieves

A community

Over this horror.

Therisa © 2018

Author’s note: Sunday, July 22, 2018, Toronto was brutally remained for the second time this year, that violence we associate with other parts of the world, can happen here. This is a safe area that I have travelled many times on transit, whether it’s the subway, streetcars or transit buses. Below are links about this tragedy:

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/07/23/theres-a-man-with-a-gun-madness-descends-upon-the-danforth.html

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/07/23/shooter-on-the-danforth-was-firing-like-someone-in-a-video-game-witness-says.html