THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY

Image: Esther Keyworth Blood trickles down Through the thick pages of the history books Blood that is hidden by the sparkly crown Of this king or that king School only shows history at a glance, a look But the weight of history is so much more It is made of many pieces, many things Many people rich and poor And the blood trickles down From the hatred, from the killing But your teacher says with a frown It’s not important; you don’t need to know How much we don’t know is chilling Because most people don’t know Our own past We only know about the loud And the wealthy, but not the vast Sum of histories from every walk of life Histories that would make us proud And histories that would make us sad But knowing makes us glad We should know; history affects our life Because the blood trickles down And it weighs on our shoulders It’s in the voices and frowns Of the people who hate us But it fuels the fire that smoulders In our hearts; that drives us That drove the revolutions that freed us And as the blood trickles down We fight for the next generation In the hope that there will be no more blood That we can shape our nation So that they may not feel like they drown In the depths of history’s secrets That we can break the dam, cause the flood Release the knowledge, teach the secrets So they are no longer hidden And it no longer seems forbidden To be proud of our past And to get rid of our fear So we can say at long last: “We are here.”