KEYS TO YOUR KINGDOM
FOR REG KEYS

privilege provides protection

from all the bombs and the hate

and affluence buys you abstention

from the battlefields of the occupied state

an accident of birth or

a victim of geography

the rules are not the same

for soldiers Keys, Tom and wales, prince harry

it is strange how harry's father and grandfather

parade like pariahs on Poppy Day

drenched in medals

splattered in ribbons like stapled cadavars

as,

Tom's father, only wears one,

the face of his murdered son,

where no tomorrows grow, today

as the holes gape like a cenotaph sunday

so, pride is indifferent to suffering

and suffering must be for the chosen

or so we are told

or led to believe in educational history lessons

in a coalition of the willing

it is only those chosen, ripe for the killing

oh wilfred your words

stick in my throat

nearly 90 years ago you wrote

"pro patria mori, the old lie"

you warned us yet no one heard

and your words drifted like ash in the november sky

as now, today, still,

young men  and women are sent to another trench

in another country

for another man's pride

to fight another man's war

but

only if you don't matter

to the country you're fighting for.

IMAGE: 'GUARDIAN' BY SEBASTIEN BOYESEN 

PUBLISHED WORKS

 

DARKNESS IS WHERE
THE STARS ARE

The book that had Stephen Green and Christian Voice on their knees praying for the redemption for the author. Personal whispers and societal screams.

'These poems engage
and enrage'
– Peter Tatchell

 

FUSE

Selected poetry and the full text of Everything Must Go & Unprotected Sex.

'Very powerful stuff'
– Harold Pinter

 

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