human rights abused
no excuse, so who's for war?
hands up everyone!
~
n.b. Referenda being used by occupying forces to skim over, or gloss up the rationale for creating a war.
CLP 27/09/2022
Tag Archives: Love
on cash
I'll buy you a meal
but I won't just give money
you said you're hungry
~
n.b. Talk me through that again. Hungry means ‘food’ right?
A young man, in a desperate condition, scarred, nervous, tired and dirty asked for a dollar for food. I said I’d get him some food, (we were stood outside a hamburger joint). I checked what he fancied, but when I came out there was no sign of him.
A middle-aged woman leaning on a walking cane, asked me for help getting some food. I explained the situation and she was grateful for the meal and drink I had carried out for the boy, who called himself William.
CLP 26/09/2022
on time
these leaves do not wait
the season is all year round
for young men falling
~
CLP 25/09/2022
on Ukraine
they still have enough
cowards to push the buttons
heroes would refuse
~
n.b. Resistance to conscription in Russia is an act of great courage. For Russians facing the press gang, “Do you have a plan? Run; Hide; Fight,”
Which is what public notices in US railway stations advise in case an act of domestic terrorism develops where the public gather. I understand that this is advice in other public buildings too, particularly schools.
Of course, the press gang was once how the British Royal Navy recruited when a ship was low on matelots. Able bodied boys and men were simply dragged off the streets of the island’s ports “to serve” the King and country.
Ukraine’s war of independence is now being fought on two sides of the border. It is a Vietnam, with Russian domestic resistance to an unjust war being as critical to the outcome as draft card burning youths were in the early 1970s, when flowers were bravely placed in gun barrels. Resistance is not futile.
CLP 25/09/2022
on light
despite so much light
no one can see everything
there are dark corners
~
n.b. To describe Chicago as complex would be a good starting point. A stunning construction. A place that seems to strive to improve. My kind of town.
on Ukraine
enough mothers know
Russian blood runs down drains too
puddles form on clay
~
n.b. There are reports that queues to leave Russia to escape conscription to the diminishing army are stretching for miles at border posts.
CLP 23/09/2022
on Ukraine
Kubiansk junction
railway becomes battle line
points of no return
~
CLP 18/09/2022
on time
waving or drowning
it's hard to determine here
unfinished business
~
n.b. This marble sculpture, carved by Adelaide Johnson, was presented to the US government in 1921 by the National Women’s Party.
Deliberately produced as emergent figures in knowledge that work to improve women’s rights is work in progress.
The women represented here are: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Antony, and Lucy Mott. Rosa Parks is sat just along the line, “sitting so others might stand.”
I took a tour of the Capitol building led by a fantastic guide from the US Capitol Guide Service, which is maintained as a free service to educate everyone about the history at the heart of the USA’s national government. Educational, engaging and entertaining! An hour well spent.
CLP 16/09/2022
on Ukraine
no joy in victory
disturbed earth, broken bodies
here are the missing
~
n.b. They say “Never go back”, but for some, they never left Izium, nor Bucha, nor Mariupol.
on time
think of any name
here, there are tens of thousands
many out of one
~
n.b. Vietnam War memorial to the lost armed forces personnel of the USA. It is a list of names of those lost, in the order they were lost. The lack of reference to the context of the conflict makes it an even more mournful memorial.
CLP 15/09/2022
Voyage des Mots 