atrocity – poems 2 die for

MEDAL

He is so proud
he just
got his medal

for exceptional
courage in
the line
of duty

bombing
a school
for
little girls.

BARELY A WHISPER

the point at which

Policy
becomes

atrocity

first stage in
our ever-evolving
human hypocrisy

barely a whisper
from usual suspects, ink-
soaked saints

as we
hit stage the second

find atrocity
at prayer

hear its pleas for
the salvation of
total indemnity

often with barely
a whimper of regret at all

MONSTER

the mirror
is always there

follows you
screams at you
to keep looking

a mirror monster
may just
step
through

and you
sitting with your calculator
using calculus to
broach
the number of atrocities

you need to fit every piece
into the puzzle

see the landscape restored to
how you have always envisaged it
how it
has never been, perhaps
(logic, splitting fragmenting even
as we talk
through this)
will
never be

and the mirror monster at last
smothered under the holy rock
and stone of
countless tiny mountains
of atrocity

so many bones the foundation
of the Everest you are building

it is death zone up there
upon that glorious peak