Poetry by Rowan Evans

Author’s Note

The concluding piece of the trilogy reflects on systemic betrayal, historical wounds, and the enduring fight for justice. It is both a lament and a call to awareness, urging readers to consider what it truly means to stay vigilant.

WOKE (Part 3 – Finale)
Poetry by Rowan Evans

I scream in streets; they call it noise.
I call it truth breaking through hollow poise.
I stay WOKE, because walls are watching,
And silence is crime when the world mocks.

They say I’m dangerous, that I overreact.
I see too clearly to step back.
I call out power in polite suits,
Exposing lies in the language of roots.

If they dare call me terrorist for speaking,
Let my words explode—unrelenting, unceasing.
I sip my warm drink: fuck ICE, fuck apathy,
Watch the world choke on its own hypocrisy.

I stay WOKE, every headline bleeds,
Every statistic screams, every shadow feeds
On the forgotten, the hunted, the unseen.
I write for ghosts, for spaces in between.

They wanted compliance, nods, polite smiles.
I give them fire, I give them exile.
I dance in chaos, spit on lies,
Wear my fury like ink, tattooed across the skies.

Call me radical, menace, foe—
Let them feel the truths I throw.
I will not sleep, will not yield;
I am awake, armed, heart the shield.

History may remember, or not,
But I will not forget, will not affront
The ones who fell while the world turned its face.
I stay WOKE, carry the fire, keep the pace.

And when night comes, heavy and still,
I write louder, sharper, bending their will.
For the oppressed, ignored, silenced, broken:
I am WOKE, unbound, my words the token.

The trilogy’s blaze has reached its peak. Revisit the awakening in WOKE Part 1: Staying Awake in a World of Injustice ← or witness the reckoning in WOKE Part 2: Bearing Witness to Injustice ←. Keep the fire alive.