Manchester 22.5.17

I Looked At Evil

 

I looked at Evil: it wore a suicide vest

My cause is just, it claimed

your murdered children my price

Kill me, and a thousand martyrs fall in behind

You cannot kill me, it smiled

for I am dead by a tug of this cord

 

You cannot kill me, Evil declared

You cannot buy me off

You cannot reason with me

Don’t bother to plead with me

for my ears are closed

my mind bankrupt

my heart already a corpse

You cannot kill me

for I am already dead

 

You cannot defend your children

for I am Evil

and I wear a suicide vest

 

 

 

RIP PC Gareth Francis

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A policeman was murdered in Stockport last night.  PC Gareth Francis was on his way home from a night out with friends when he was attacked on Castle Street, Edgeley.  He died in hospital.  Two men have been arrested.

We shop on Castle Street all the time.  It is just up the road from my church.  I have been on it at night, on an evening out with friends.

I was desperate to leave South Africa in 1996 because of the violence.  We heard many terrible stories while we lived there, and witnessed violence ourselves, upon occasion.  I always thought it could happen to one of us while we lived there.

I never expected it to happen so close to home, here in the UK.  We have a lot of petty crime but we feel safe walking the streets.

It is dreadful to think of that young man, a man who was valuable in his community, who made a difference, being killed as he walked home.

Such a tragic waste.

 

No Humour Today

I think about all those murdered children and I don’t have it in me to laugh.

 

Never Forget

Image via Wikipedia

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.  I have always wanted to write a Holocaust poem; this isn’t it.  I don’t think I will ever manage it.  It was too terrible a time to comprehend.

It’s important to remember that it wasn’t just Jews who were butchered, but gypsies, homosexuals, the old, sick, disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses: anyone considered a deviant or a burden. 

Whenever I feel sorry for myself – I’m too cold, too hungry, have too little money – I think of the victims of the concentration camps, all they lost; how they suffered; the unbelievable cruelty; and I feel grateful for all I have.

Anyway, I wanted to mark the day; it’s too easy to forget.  Look at what happened in Bosnia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur; and tell me it won’t happen again.

 

HMD” _mce_href=”http://vimeo.com/18623986″>HMD”>http://vimeo.com/18623986″>HMD 2011 Untold Stories from Holocaust”>http://vimeo.com/hmd2701″>Holocaust Memorial Day Trust on Vimeo.

How it Happens

I spent the day with Mrs B, 90. 
Her husband liked to get about. 
America, you know; for the Big Fight.  With friends. 

She does not care for curry, 
Americans, foreign travel. 
Oh, but rather likes The Jews. 

She’s glad that German business never happened here. 
He was fond of the ladies, you know.
 
Almost: Mosley.  Brown Shirts.  Oxford Street. 
Dreadful.  I stayed home.