Still Standing

Forever it seems, we have been hunted like hounds by blood-thirsty bigotry.
To make an honest living in a dishonest world is all we ever desired.
Yet we are taunted and tortured. Ridiculed and ransacked. Minimized and crucified.
Jealousy and envy—ruthless twin assassins hired by our enemies—
Slither through our city, day and night, like silent serpents in the tall thicket,
Plotting to strike our hopeful hearts with venomous spite.

What did we ever do to provoke them?
Is it the way we till our land?
Is it the way we eat our food?
Is it the way we see the sky?
What warrants such devious atrocities as I have seen?

Humble men humiliated and murdered.
Loving wives whipped like livestock.
Innocent children enslaved or beheaded.
What did we ever do to them?

For thousands of years they knocked us down.
For thousands of years we got up.

They can tie us down and burn our bodies,
But they will never drown our dreams.

For thousands of years I have witnessed the persecution of my people.
Yet here we are, still standing.