Common Decency by Aqeel Parvez
Aqeel Parvez is a poet and spoken word artist from Leeds. He has been published widely and internationally, performing at events around the UK. He runs the publisher/events company Malnourished Intellect, and the podcast/monthly poetry open mic Poets Talking Bollocks with Keith Fenton.
I was just 13 / already withering / watching my people on the TV blown to smithereens / it’s sickening, Baba ain’t listening / smoking his lungs to oblivion / used up all the good will we been gathering / Pakistan the streets is flooding in / just the times we living in / my heart is quickening / anxiety walking to school it’s not making sense /
might be that common decency is not so common / might be that common ground is not what we’re standing on /
cos it’s common decency that makes us human / it’s common ground we seek for our children /
but I can’t relate to the extracurriculars / I’d like to share their dreams but our lives are not equivalent / we are not similar / our beginnings are ulterior / looking for hope in broken mirrors / can’t cope out of mass fear / layers on in the dead of winter / seems like it’s colder in here / gas company turned off the heater / my family started down here / every inch was spectacular / father was not here / mother was a torturer / mother used to beat us / mother was miraculous /
the first time I had dinner with Jake’s parents / I realised our childhood was not common / realised that living in fear had become a burden / how shame was a mountain / how it’d be a long time before I was normal
cos it might be that common decency is not so common / might be that common ground is not what we’re standing on /
cos it’s common decency that makes us human / it’s common ground we seek for our children /
we had to go it alone / raised the younger siblings on our own / my older sister deserves an iron throne / no wonder why our hearts is stone / now we’re fully grown / but the child inside is bought and sold / complex trauma got a stronger hold / skipped a beat but we caught the second note / second wind kept us out the freezing cold / stacked deck but we refused to fold / so the tears are warm now and our strength is cold/
cos it might be that common decency is not so common / might be that common ground is not what we’re standing on/
cos it’s common decency that makes us human / it’s common ground we seek for our children /
it might be the undiagnosed mental illness / that’s the culture’s side business / or could be the change of season / search my mind for whatever reason / but we’ll never be victims / that shit’s sickening / never go on social media begging it / never stay down, never wedding it / might be that god’s the reason / might be such a thing as bad religion / taking back what’s mine feel like Liam Neeson in taken / lately I’m breaking, so angry I’m shaking / injustice is our fate and / equality is a quality that’s missing /
cos it might be that common decency is not so common / might be that common ground is not what we’re standing on/
see we were decent men before we were indecent / we were decent men before we were indecent / we had a rich man’s dreams before equilibrium / we had goals before we learned about goalposts / we were just lost boys searching for footholds / we were decent men before we were indecent /
it’s our common decency that makes us human / it’s common ground we seek for our children /
it’s our will to feel that keeps us grounded / it’s our blackened hearts full of compassion / it’s the truth that is boundless
cos they told us that the common man was not society’s burden / so it has to be us seeking the well of wisdom / a generation of seekers looking for freedom / it must be us / we must find our own reasons