I write of spring in autumn
of summer in winter
I like to be where I'm not
to cheat on time
fantasy
is so much better

Fear makes our rational minds corrode
Empty, paralysed and in shock
Our sense of hope starts to erode

Plane-bombed towers stretch and implode
Bone dust smothers a city block
Fear makes our rational minds corrode

Suicide bombs start to explode
None live to stand in courtroom dock
Our sense of hope starts to erode

Buses are blown up in the road
Red heart of a city they mock
Fear makes our rational minds corrode

Another gruesome episode
We’re held in a violent deadlock
Our sense of hope starts to erode

Where is the truth that we are owed?
Death’s time is set on Terror’s clock
Fear makes our rational minds corrode
Our sense of hope starts to erode

Climbing slowly
up the back stairs
softly crossing
to the door
pushing gently
knocking empty
bottles to
the bedroom floor,
empty pledge
asleep on bedsheets
broken, blind and
in my chest
I can feel
an ageing drum's beat
marking time,
and emptiness.

18 is a hard age
to be black
and dead

tear-gas in our eyes
burns, baby, burns.

r ~ 8/14/14