Slaves Of Us
Lady, you are safe with me

Up on this prison wall

Into the Red Zone

On the bridge to Strasbourg

Write it - Ignite it! / Beat the borders!

Collateral Damage / Why still ask why / Blue latex gloves

Bye Bye Black Pete / My time is mine!

Up on this prison wall

Up on this prison wall crying
out for the wall to fall like
the lies on the outside 'bout the
cries from the inside and
the words on this wall may they
burn through it tall
Unbreakable unforgettable
the pain of it all and again
and again we make it sound and
resound and let words become
dynamite and the power of the
oppressed come to light and to rise
To stand up against yet another
prison wall up on that prison wall

And freedom bitter and sour and
mercy for the mighty and what it means
another hour what it means another
day gone away taken away for
those to stay be left behind for those
who can speak but never be heard
To tell you it hurts to feel the weakness
not the meekness feel the numbness
not the speechlessness feel the
pressure of the concrete silence find
the treasure of withstanding violence
Fight the whispering of the mind
that drives you mad in lingering
hunger for a freedom bitter and sour

Yes bitter it is up on that prison wall
as I watch the fences and watch
reality fade away in yet another layer of
grey for those here to stay and I
wish I may be with you today
I would cherish the doors and the bars just
to know you are not alone to share
the taste of the empty tray that feeds
you nothing but fear and still
I can never take it away the burden the
doors keep hidden for all to be rid of
yet another non-citizen yet another
nobody yet another hobo drifter lost
soul or shifter unwelcome unwanted
Who are you what are you no different
than me so bitter is freedom and sour is
is the sun and the wind and the rain
that I feel as I am free at liberty my
privileged person that I don't want to be

So I climb up on that prison wall
if not to break it at least to stand tall
and not to forget to remember it all
To call for hammers and to call for
bulldozers and to call for freedom and
not only mine which is the one I can but
use like a brick use like a stick use like a
Molotov cocktail use like a mixture of
volatile expression and inflammable
action there up on that prison wall
A place enforced by never minds a
non existing grave of empty eyed ghosts
dressed in bare verdicts of powers that be
criminal and filthy as they score high up
on that ladder of society's no choices for
the beggar so you better not beg and
better not ask and don't even demand
Just take it and make it for freedom for all to
burn down and even better to blow up yet
another one of those prison walls

I taste it and taste it what is wasted
and wasted a time gone by another
footstep between six feet to one side and
nine feet to the other and the ceiling's
coming down and the floor is coming up and
the door is staring at you and the sky cannot
be touched the air can't make you shiver
the wind can't blow your face so what is there
to embrace but resistance for to resist is
to exist and to exist is to resist and to live
is to be free and to be free is to live for all to
live for liberation animals and humans alike
No camps no prisons no institutes no
experiments no torture no slaughter no
false sentiments no so called common
sense no 'no' for an answer no questions
No for the masters the judges the cops the
prosecutors the butchers the guards the
politicians no questions no expectations
No hope but truth no rope no chains no
moving in vain just the rain that will wash
away the blood and the tears just the sun
that warms our soul equally and inseparable
That my friend are my dreams right there
and then overlooking the shame as I'm
standing again up on this prison wall

Joke Kaviaar

November 25 2014

Into the Red Zone

Into the Red Zone
The empty heart of the city of Brussels
Into the Red Zone
The EU parliament security Red Zone

Zone of democratic dictatorship
Center of equality it says
It has even won a price for
upholding human rights between
its high rise glass towering buildings
Mirrors in the face of forgotten children
But not facing it!
Walls and gates covered in cameras
protecting steel and concrete
But not life!

We are allowed
Into the Red Zone
For ten minutes
To ask
Whose human rights?
Equal is not the sans-papier
to the politician
Equal is not the refugee
to the business man

Zone of solidarity it says
Whose solidarity?
On the Mediterranean sea solidarity is
practiced by fishermen alongside
drowning victims lost in laws literally
Fighting Frontex
the almighty border agency
Human rights
are lying on the bottom of the sea

This is the dignity of the Red Zone rulers
They know nothing of the waves of fear
The depths of despair
The desert of loneliness
Theirs is the dignity on paper only
Theirs is the liberty to those of legal status
Others the liberty of poverty only

Justice it says
in all those languages the Red Zone represents
where justice is
Europeans only
Whites only
It is not in its borders
It is not in its prisons
It is not in its streets where the voiceless
meet and get together to go

Into the Red Zone
To state accusations
To find these words at the entrance of these
price winning institutions of legal murder


They are but words
in the Red Zone

In the Red Zone
Into the blood Zone
In the Red Zone
Into the dead Zone

Joke Kaviaar
June 27 2014, Brussels

On the bridge to Strasbourg

On the bridge
before the border
We are silent
with each other

There is no order
There is no law
on this here bridge
there is just awe

We are silent
for the courageous
We sit down
lay down our banners

...And the river carries
the dreams of all
Those that have died
Never reached the shore

And on this bridge
in the burning heat
on the asphalt road
Has someone cried?

We are on the verge
of crossing the border
It speaks of pain
in tongues of torture

Those who remember
been there before
at some other frontier
can tell you more

About loss of lives
of closing doors
The will to fight
as the ocean roars

...And the river carries
the dreams of all
Those that have died
Never reached the shore

Now the march begins
as we get up
to cross those borders
time and again

For time and again
the borders murder
No end to struggle
Carry on further

Just like that river
We carry the dreams
A tribute to freedom
A promise to keep

...And the river carries
the dreams of all
Those that survived
that have reached the shore

Joke Kaviaar
May 19 2014, Strasbourg

Write it - Ignite it!

Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
You better shut up - or we'll lock you up

It is time to define we got the right to incite
Call out! Call out! Call out! Call out!

We gotta write it - ignite it
Burn the prosecution
and the ministry of justice!

We gotta light it and fight it
Burn down the profits
of the prisons, institutions!

Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
It is time now to fight - Not to listen to the lies

They make ya do time for a thought crime
Only one solution is to call out revolution!

One solution: Revolution!

Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
Down with the nations - Stop deportations!

It is time to define we got the right to incite
Call out! Call out! Call out! Call out!

We gotta write it - ignite it
Burn the prosecution
and the ministry of justice!

We gotta light it and fight it
Burn down the profits
of the prisons, institutions!

Charged with the crime of speaking your mind
Down with the borders - Fuck law and order!

They make ya do time for a thought crime
Only one solution is to call out revolution!

'Write it - Ignite it' on MP3

Joke Kaviaar
September 29, 2011

Beat the borders!

Who is telling us where to go and
where to stay and who says NO to
questions asked, permits applied for?
Who declared the immigrants war?

Who is standing in our way and
who is law and who is paid for
stamps to give, entrance denied to
those that tried to make it up here?

Who makes money and has a say in
who gets locked up, has to pay
for being here or being there and
either way nowhere is safe, - Let's..

Take no orders
Let's beat the borders
Let's cross the lines
Let's ignore the signs

Who's responsible, who is rich and
who is pulling strings, and which
politicians do not lie or cry them
crocodile tears when you die?

All they ever do is take, turning
people into slaves, turning slavery
into profit, turning profit into property
into poverty for you and for me!

There is no reason to obey, living
lives that lead to the grave
Let's be standing in the way,
make a difference, start today, - Let's

Take no orders
Let's beat the borders
Let's cross the lines
Let's ignore the signs

Joke Kaviaar
January 18, 2012

Collateral Damage

This war, it isn't safe for our soldiers
Assassins crawling all over the place
It's not even safe for our armored trucks

We keep sending the bodies back home
Bags with bones and flesh and blood
To be the heroes we need to create

It is part of our duty, the price that we pay
And the whole world is paying attention
as mothers and children cry, flags raised

As we pray for our martyrs, their honor
The just cause we pretend it to be,
this war to be played out inevitably

All so far away from our homes
claiming just another bare necessity
or mercy, peace, international ease

We can't tell you that it is propaganda
but the truth of politics, it belongs to us
No interests, no secret agenda, say hush-

We're only in it for the oil
We're only in it for the soil
We're in it for power, you know
Human rights? My ass! No show

To hell with them refugees
To hell with them deportees
To hell with these so called liberties
It 's only collateral damage, you see

as another childs dream is blown to smithereens!

Joke Kaviaar
January 29, 2012

Write it! Ignite it! with Zibabu 20/1/12

Why still ask why

'Why' is the outcry to be heard from the inside
Yet another persons existence denied
'Why' is the outcry once and again
from yet another cell, who wants to understand?

'Why' is the question to be heard from the streets
again from more people that nobody greets
'Why' is the question today and tomorrow
from voices that rise to take no more sorrow

Why do we have to run and to hide?
'Why' gets no answer, not one single word
'Why' is a prison that deprives us of pride
Ask no longer why, it will not be heard

'Why' is to expect that someone will explain
that there is an honest reason and nothing is in vain
'Why' is to expect that there is fairness to it all
That somehow it is justice you stand behind that wall

'Why' is to place trust in the answer to be truthful
If ever it is given, it's to deceive, it's not useful
'Why' is to place trust in those on top and in power
that again keep you waiting, hour after hour

Why, if one's disposable, a fugitive, nameless?
Why, if one is guilty just by being around?
Why then not fight when stateless and faceless?
If ever there's a 'why' to be answered with a sound

..it is this one

Why take the hate, take the blame another day?
Why shake the hands of those that won't be your friends?
There's no reason why, but the fear that made you play
the game you will lose, that's how it always ends

Why still ask why while time passes by?
Why still ask why while in the meantime you die?
Why still ask why while you know you don't matter?
Why, ask yourself, things don't get any better?

Because of the waiting, my friend,
for the question to never be answered

Joke Kaviaar
February 7, 2012

Blue latex gloves

Blue latex gloves
They came turning my home
into a crime scene
Searching and investigating
my socks and my underwear,
the bed that we share

Blue latex gloves
going through my life,
my night and my day
Blue hands touching everything
All the letters I wrote,
postcards I received

Blue latex gloves
turning upside down the world
that used to be my place
Blue penetration in the name
of the law sniffing
bags, closets and books

Blue latex gloves
stealing and taking 'cause
they 'got the right to do so',
and nothing is mine no more,
my holiday pictures,
my intimate secrets

Blue latex fingers
feeling and interfering,
poking and photographing
An invasion, a dirty and dangerous
pest infestation came creeping in
wearing blue latex gloves!

These blue latex gloves,
they came to my door,
said 'we got a warrant',
them blue latex bastards!
They came busting in with
their cuffs and commands,

them blue latex gloves!
Every corner they slithered
Every picture they touched
Every drawer they peeked into
All of it contaminated
They never really went away

them blue latex gloves!
Turning my words into
evidence and all that I wrote
into crime, my pen and paper,
computer, keyboard and screen
Weapons to be confiscated

Soon them blue latex gloves
will come digging for more
They'll strip all of us naked,
our flesh and our minds, 'cause
we are suspects to be analyzed
It is justice, and it's wearing blue latex gloves

Joke Kaviaar
May 5, 2012

My time is mine!

To kill the time is to kill the mind just to keep the damn thing occupied and accomplish nothing! To kill the time, the slow time inside, the seconds, minutes, hours, the uncountable tracks of time I cannot keep, it is a death wish. To kill the time, knowing that the hill time climbs is steep and it's slippery, is suicide. And the hands of yet another clock keep sending me away in oblivion, to forget about time is to forget about life. And I try to hold on to the hands of the clock as they slowly fade away, to the little one most, for it points out all these non existent hours. How to make time work to our advantage, that's the challenge!

And we push and we pull and we're all working the time, doing the time. We try to kick it forward, hoping it will be a rubber ball this time, light and bouncing, and always finding that time is rather a bowling ball, heavy to carry, heavy to throw. Every time again we'll find that killing time is pointless, wasting away, walking away another day and another day.

What time is it? Three hours later it's thirty minutes later! Hurry up, you time! Life's too short to be waiting for you. To kill the time is to know that time is dragging it's feet, just to keep us waiting or else time must be crippled, time must be sick. To kill the time is to spill the time, there goes another week down the drain, slow and sticky like blood, leaving traces of pain of time spent in vain.

Has anyone spoken to time lately? What does it have to say for itself? What poor excuses does it have to offer to not agree with us, forcing itself into our mind, our thoughts, so all we can do is wait for it to pass by. Fools we are for trying to kill the time. Is it our enemy? It seems to be! Can it be our friend? To what end? Come on you tick-tock-ticking wrist gripping alarm-bell ringing bastard! Work with me! I'll make you, your hear!

Mind over time, energy over lethargy, you conspirator to boredom, insanity, wariness, fatigue, numbness. You conspirator to doors closed, commands given, rules applied, laws implemented, verdicts given and what more of this madness there is in the hands of those who control the time – our time! That's a crime! What else can we do to turn the tables and make this time ours?

My time, I am taking it back – back on the fast track! Run sucker, run, as I write and I rhyme and I draw another timetable turning, for my mind is mine, my time will not be done, it will be conquered, it will be brought back to life! Such is my time and my mind! Unchained, untamed, set free! My time and my mind, they belong to me!

Joke Kaviaar
November 23, 2013

Bye Bye Black Pete

Them blackface painting blackmailers, they just don't get it
These two faced citizens, they keep on at it
Racism's shame, don't you forget it
You privileged whites, you just love to let it -

Don't you?

A Dutch tradition, a kids play they say
An innocent saint, his slave so gay
His merry dancing, his jumping game
He's but a toy, but really a frame -

Isn't he?

Them blackface painting blackmailers, they keep on saying
That they're not racist, "so stop complaining,
or else go home, from where ever you came,
you goddamn ........., you are all the same" -

Oh, really?

Some Dutch tradition! Is that here to stay?!
Some ambition! For hate to display!
"Shut up your protest, for this we may
We may be bigots, so go away -

So we can party"

You blackface painting blackmailers, what's there to celebrate?
A slavery history, to reinstate? Well,
don't you know, it's passed it's sell-by date?
And VOC, it's masters gone and late! -

So this is it!

Bye bye Black Pete, a goodbye so sweet
Oh, you white fools on your last feet
You blackface painting blackmailers, now take the heat!
This Dutch tradition is old indeed

It's moulded
So hold it
It's over, Black Pete!

Joke Kaviaar
November 5, 2013

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