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on the train
It makes me sad that we have to do thisPick up a trayTake off our coatsPlace them with our bagsWatch them being watchedAs they go through a scannerWe’re just catching the 10:10hAcross the plainThrough orange and olive grovesPassing lemon trees glintingIn the low winter sun breaking over the sierrasOnce the only barrier between Murcia and →
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in Memphis (2022) / on Ukraine
We’re at a bus stopOn Elvis Presley BoulevardWe’ve been to checkThe King’s still deadAnd waiting thereIn Tennessee’s afternoon heatWe talk of EuropeWhat we’ve shared of itThe moral question?For a young Polish man from EnglandOn holiday with his fatherThere is no doubtI’d be going home to fightWith no thought of checking outHeroic resistanceRemember The AlamoThe Red →
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on Ukraine
It is like dealing with a kid”Time to stop now.”Absolutely no response”I said, that’s enough.You’ve been on that game too long.””Hang on. I’ve nearly finished this level.””No. Stop now! That’s enough.Come out of your room.You must join us at the table.””I’m really into this now.And I’m not really hungry.””It’s your favourite dish.It’s been especially prepared. →
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on Ukraine
24th August, 1991Tearing a strip off the Iron CurtainThe Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic broke awayNo one said it would be easyKyiv wasn’t built in a dayOut of the maelstromThe stirring of the potThe plot and counter-plotA nation finding its feetAfter decades of decayWith grey painted over the cracksUkraine turned toward the light pouring through the →
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on Ukraine
something straight out of The Brothers Grimminnocence of children betrayedin their thousandsabducted, shipped, farmed outblond hair, blue eyes their appealto childless Russian couplesconscripted to Moscow’s Young Armytaught to deny their birthplaceif they were ever old enough to know from where they sprang~n.b. Check it out, the War Crimes are not just the levelling of villages, →
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on Ukraine
all the neighbours knowsomething’s not rightwe suspect there’s a meetingthey’ll be talking about ushow we’re being mistreatedbut it won’t change anythingwe’ll still be getting those beatingswithout regard to our feelingslocked in our roomthat muffles our screamingbarricaded in our roomkicking and screamingalone in our roomtrying to fight off the demon~n.b. USA and Russia to meet in →
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Ghosts (ii)
Sometimes they come at nightNot always singly, but in pairsAt ease, with smilesTalking about mundane thingsWithout axes to grindHere’s the first, then his motherCircling like sharksAt ease, with their smiles~ CLP 04/08/2025 →
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on Ukraine
in the alcove of an abandoned shoplaid out in dishevelled dreamson top of improvised beddingdesperate for sleepclutched by each otherdesperate for sleeptattered, battered, torndesperate for sleepas the upright peopleturn out from the last trainfrom theatres, barsthe queues for clubsanother police siren cuts into the drunken chatteringdesperate for sleepa gaggle of othersliving closeto the lip of →
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on ignorance
What is going on?curiosity demandssome satisfactionin face of mistrustwe search for explanationwhere sunshine is absentisolated homesfamilies divided by techpreclude discussionwe’re left to join dotsif A is C and B Zwe write our own truths~ CLP 19/06/2025 →
Journey of Words 