Poems

Dark clouds creep across the night sky.

I lay asleep, dreaming of the Earth,

Suspended in space.

The infinite universe stretches out as the Earth floats below.

Clean, clear, blackness cradles me in its arms.

Holds me tight.

Caresses my naked body

And warmly whispers,

‘Take a look’.

The Earth creaks like a vessel sunk.

Cracks appear as she opens her land to the sky.

Hauling themselves from her crevices,

I see our fallen soldiers;

Writhing and screaming

And bleeding with dissatisfaction.

Afraid and hopeless and wholly disregarded,

They are alone despite their togetherness.

They are desperately gasping for air

That is untainted by oil and greed and godliness.

Wretched are the widows that mourn them.

Filled to the skin with desperate agony,

They reach out for their lovers one last time

And in doing so struggle to cradle

Their fatherless children.

Their eyes are scarred and

Their tears lash the ground

like a whip stroke on bare skin.

They plead in vain for the return of their men

but Mother Earth has no natural answer.

Under the weight of her soaked soil,

Sodden with blood, spilt from life she once created,

The Earth grows tired and heavy.

She knows not why we have wasted ourselves

For wealth and artificial honour.

She recalls the soldiers,

Sucking them into her heart

And clutching them to her forsworn soul;

Fully aware that in time,

There will only be more to follow.