Skin

Nicole Henry and Biba Smallman
All you were doing was celebrating your birthday
You lingered as friends left
Light sabres
held aloft lit your path
Birthday celebrations morphed into
A bloodied
ghoulish horror show  

Nicole and Biba you had always been friends
Sisters
Years
Fathers
Even death could not separate you

Missing reported
Missing ignored
By those charged to protect your skin
Why… why… so slow?
Friends searched
And found you murdered
There where they’d said
You were

There
On that screened off sacred ground
But instead of preserving and respecting
Your bodies
Those charged to protect you
Chose further desecration
Chose to dehumanise you further
Shared laughing selfies
With kindred racists

Beautiful skin no more, except in the memory
Your future consumed
By those who hate
But forever revered by those who loved you.

‘Mother’ last word on your lips
She so dignified
Though reeling from the unspeakable
demands justice
And asks the question we all ask
Was it your melanin – skin that
Determined the lack of urgency in finding you?
Was it your melanin – skin that
Kept the devouring press from exposing your grotesque demise?

Nicole Henry, Biba Smallman and Sarah Everard you will not be forgotten.

Myrna Moore