BECAUSE YOU STILL LISTEN

BECAUSE YOU STILL LISTEN
“My tongue betrayed me to the
butchers” Brecht

someone is listening
monitoring, eavesdropping,
looking for something

to
nip in the bud,
find full
flower
in their heart

someone listening
is about to plonk
me Adrienne
at the
dinner table
hold me hostage

vaporize humanity
whilst
    we dine
all night

but truth
be told
I am quite hungry
am so hungry
haven”t eaten
a square meal
for a
   thousand years

that starving
prodigal of
the parable
how effortlessly
I exceed him

what
fatted calf
was ever
sent my way

and yet
fortunate I am
compare those
who
simply died
at the very outset
or lived
through worst
of worst times

plague, famine, blitz,
slavery, torture
and every
subtle (and
not so subtle) flavour
of oppression

myself just chilling
at my desk
at school
    told not to sit
exposed but
climb under, find
perfect safety

some rum run in
over the question
of missiles
blockades
   and bluster
land of sun
and sugar
       embracing
the red philosophy that
told America “no”

the villain’s
children’s
smiling faces
on some canned
goods in my
Mother’s pantry
(bound to
be
simply
bound to be)

day of disaster
beyond
    any other

somewhere children beaming
asking “what
is thermo?”
     “what is nuclear?”

would not
be beaming if they truly knew

someone is
         listening got
my gist

left
me thinking

if my tongue did
          betray what
is there
to say?