STUMBLE

STUMBLE

we were falling asleep
trying to left-brain
follow every
technicality after
technicality
(South Africa got no case
because we forgot
to insist on
a reply)

but we will show you
dispute if you
diss our
deep integrity

(bet after this you
wish we were
your legal
arm)

but where
were your human fire and
intensity
moments of raw humanity

saw only a shifting of the goal posts
a stilted conjuring act

none of that Irish flair and poetry
threatening to scorch the beams in
the palace roof bringing it tumbling down, everything upside

down
and tumbling down

the world tipped South and
the Southern Cross

pointing the way
dear next Dante
away
from Hell
and towards Heaven

yes no poetry, not a flash at all,
just stumbling responses
and mixed-up
papers shuffled like cards but

all of them
jokers

not a poet
in the pack

not one
homegrown (perhaps
you did
them in

as you did every voice in Gaza
especially
those of the poets