UNMARKED GRAVES
These days I read little;
Dog eared bargains
In charity shops
No longer tempt
Now history is only
A click away.
On line videos
Provide instant
Gratification,
Bullet casings,
Steel helmets
And rusty rifles
Rise from the earth.
I fly from France
To the Russian front,
From the Great War
To the Second
In a heartbeat,
A finger movement.
Watch gloved hands
Excitedly wiping dirt
From what
Should remain
Buried,
Undisturbed.
These days it’s not
A golf club
Or a fishing rod
That I grip tightly;
Only the black box
Mounted on a pole
And wired to my ears.
Probing the soil,
Listening for echoes,
Sweeping the surface
Of unmarked graves.
SORCERER
I wave my hand my eyes explode
The friction of my senses
Causes reality to implode
From beneath a hat
I produce a skull
Licked clean by an angry cat
I’m a mysterious magician
Full of tricks
Well, fancy that
Take my hand come under my spell
Don't hesitate to call me
If you need support or don’t feel well
Always dressed in black
Good bedside manner
Address me as ‘Your Highness’
Smile as I write out a prescription
A sure cure
For your illness
Feel my power taste my liquor
Converse with every demon
That approaches you seeking succour
Meet the evil one
Accept my welcome
Abandon all your restraint
Dance wildly around the blazing fire
Touch the flames
Until you faint.
SILENCED
Les Non-Réclamés (The Unclaimed)
Painting by Steph Goodger 2015.
Twenty-four coffins open lidded
Painted in oils, upright like sentries
Paris 1871, unclaimed communards
Dreamers who sought freedom
In the womb of revolution;
See this is what you get
This is how it ends
This grim display.
All are numbered
In the original photograph
But the artist has painted
Each card blank
Perhaps to avoid distraction
For some have the same numerals;
See this is the madness
This is the hopeless
Confusion of rebellion.
Most are men
Their heavy beards
Untidy, matted with blood
Limbs bent and twisted
See their awful expressions
Unsoftened by brush strokes
And see a solitary woman face down
Her angry protests
Forever silenced. |