Les discours sont libre

Mais si ça va faire mal

Ne les dis pas

We are told that words are free

But no one warns us about how expensive

It is to cure from wounds inflicted by words

That should have been left unsaid

Today, most people are everything they never wanted

Because everything they have always wanted to be

Was destroyed by carelessly said expressions and opinions

Of what others wanted them to be,

Words can kill dreams and destinies

Les discours sont libre

Mais si ça va faire mal

Ne les dis pas

The tongue has no bone

But it is the strongest, sometimes the fiercest part of a human body.

From our communities to vast facebook, twitter and instagram streets,

Our tongues sting with hate;

Unconscious, sometimes conscious

Unverified, carelessly uttered words intended to divide, hurt or kill.

Hate speech wreaks more havoc than a well targeted bomb

It is venomous, camouflaged in assumptions…

Generational ideologies passed on from people to people

Les discours sont libre

Mais si ça va faire mal

Ne les dis pas

Why do we seem to log out of our brains

Every time we log into the net?

We create negative conversations about people

Or where they come from

We make fake news travel faster than a flashlight

We no longer think when we click, tweet or speak

We all love jokes but jokes are not funny

When they are intended to make others cry

Jokes like referring to Anglophones as anglofools

Or calling bangwa people, 99 sense

Or referring to Northern settlers as sheep

Hate speech is the face behind the mask that has for decades

Spurred world wars and atrocities:

The holocaust

The Cambodian genocide

The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

The Anglophone crisis

Les discours sont libre

Mais si ça va faire mal

Ne les dis pas 

By the sting of our tongues

Men have carried the venoms of bitterness in their veins

Nations have gone to war, fighting with no gain

Young people have died without a whimper of pain

Hate is taking over our humanity, pouring nonstop like heavy rains

We are only travelers

Walking through this universe we call home

To be here today and gone tomorrow

The only thing that stays

is our footprints

The memories we create

And how our words made people feel

Les discours sont libre

Mais si ça va faire mal

Ne les dis pas 

© PENBOY

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