anger – three good words

June 16, 2020

lacrimosa

it starts in the heart

and sweeps out in a wave,
up the larynx
into a mouth, wide open

a cry so loud
all who have eyes shed tears
and all who can see
weep
with anger
and anguish

for now
and again now
and again
now
and again now, now
now
there is no time
between the call
and response

there is no time
to wait
for now it is life or death:
the care of peace or the chaos of despair

August 20, 2017August 20, 2017

toxic

Corridor, Windows, Dark & Light

I remember this anger
the slow-simmering boil
clenched tight just above the gut
that sleepless certainty of knowing
you have been wronged
on every scale.

‘Stupid is as stupid does’
But I’m no Forrest
I can see the trees for what they are
the beginning of a long Heart of Darkness
where everything is warped
and wrong and upside down
because even the mood is toxic

and suddenly I can trace the battle scars
fading into the foreground
like that tattoo you forgot about
or those combat boots out back
grown dusty in the shed
the ones that helped you cross
that violent overgrown desert.

And now it’s time
time to take down the gas-mask
and strap on the worn leather
find your trusted binoculars
the ones without the fancy bits
but excellent night vision
now it is time to get out the maps
the combat notes, the exit strategies
and scout almost-forgotten terrain

because you know this is no joke.
this is as real as it gets
this is the old and known
enemy.

July 9, 2016

yes, but

two nightmares, r and g
both alike in their utter lack of dignity
in a well-known land
where there are too many such scenes

and that’s where it ends
since there is neither rhyme nor reason
to this violence
this continuous cruelty
so organised, so repetitive
it has become the unthinkable:
commonplace, everyday
predictable
just another news reel.

how is it that death walks the land
with such impunity
and we still think we’re at peace?

we document the seas of tears
we tape the cries of anguish, terror and disbelief
and yet
eyes turn blind
ears tone-deaf
and words are written, spoken
stating repeatedly
‘yes, but’
‘not all of us’

‘not me’.

August 13, 2015August 13, 2015

rise and rise

two seconds, three
understanding blooms
palpitations rise and rise and rise

a hot red slab of anger, pain
veined white with amusement, wry
scorched perfectly on each side
with blood red coals of feeling
soot black with melancholy

then
after all pretence is dropped
leaving just heartfelt desire
to know, see
to really understand:

a sudden why
splits the tree of reason
with a jab of irrational light
a bolt of hot heart electric
that goes deep
deeper still
all the way down

cracking open marbled stone below
that lay hidden
under deep roots of denial
possibly, probably
lying low in the undisturbed slumber
of the long ignored
disrupted by a blessed moment
of clear harsh uncompromising
sight.

sometimes the mistake was made
too long ago to be rectified
sometimes youth means
being hopelessly hopelessly blind
to the silly slyness
that is life.