Oh London, you were
a dream and a nightmare all
wrapped up into one

7:37 AM
19/2/20

Black stone juts out over greying ice,
A mass of alpine greenery,
Half bare, half masked in white;
The motion of a turner painting,
Colours cast through Lowry's eyes.

Camouflaged upon a riverside
With no sign of Lutheran ambition,
As faith faltered, medieval to Christ,
A small church modestly mirages,
Casting simplicity into Nordic pride.

The excitement of the northern lights
Over the precipice of these continents,
American and Eurasian plates collide.
The Langjökull Glacier screams
Witnessing its own untimely demise.

The remoteness captured in the landscape
Starkly contrasts to us who bear witness to it
And in the mirroring of the landscape
A lonely civil dwelling knows nothing
Of war between nature and humankind.

Ciao Rome, you were a splendid dream.
Au revoir Paris, you were like an autumn kiss.
Adios Barcelona, your crevices were filled
with the scent of cayenne pepper.
La revedere Bucharest, may your skies be filled with summer love.
Antio sas Athens, your temples are magnificent.

I just watched a news report:
there’s a heatwave in Europe
over 41 degrees celcius!
Forests are on fire,
people are uncomfortably sweltering,
the old and sick are dying,
climate change is happening!

I wonder
when will society
become desperate enough
about dangerous climate change
to stop using carbon-emitting fuels
and instead use renewable energies
like solar, wind and hydro?

Europe grants a lot

of past, but not a future –


for poor refugees.

You looked so dead
as you sat there staring at me and as i sat there staring back at you through red stained eyes
and wet cheeks
and a lip that I could not control.
As I just sat and sat
and sat after telling you how
I loved you
and all I wanted to do was make you
happy for the rest of my life
you just looked at me
like I was some inconvenience in your good time.
You yourself for a moment held back tears
I could see them.
Your jaw tense and your eyes hollow but filled with resentment.
I was a flat tire - a stalled vehicle on the highway of your life
your summer of love and *** and drugs and cigarettes and *****
and Europe
and here I was pouring my soul out onto the grass in front of you on the banks of the Seine and you sat there
silently
sipping your rosé as if I was the fly that had landed in it.
You were horrible
it was horrible
and I had emptied my heart in front of you like I never had before with anyone
especially you
and you told me that as well,
that this was all that you wanted to hear when we were together
and now the time came where I was saying it
and it was too late for some reason
because you had done whatever you had to do to get over me
and now it was my time
and how unfortunate for you that you had to endure it alongside me. But you didn’t endure it.
You turned your face away from me as I wept
and said you’d rather get drunk instead of hold my hand
and when we left I walked alone
behind you along the river
and watched your shadow fade away against the coming twilight
and the backdrop of the city
and my world fell apart.
I’ll never forget that night in Paris.
It was my 35th birthday.

Sixteen letters
Two words
Is it
Too much to ask
of a people
That colonized worlds
And destroyed civilizations?

Let it slither
On your tongue
Let it glide
Down your throat
Until it rests
Close to your heart

Breathe it in
Until it dissolves
Into the crimson
That runs in your veins
And flows
Beneath your skull
Into your mind

For too long
I’ve cowered
Inside a cave of nicknames
And excuses

If you can pronounce
Daenerys Targaryen
You can say
My name

You said we could vote
And the verdict -
You would Protexit,
You said that -
Brexit Means Brexit,
You said to trust you
To take us to the Exit.

So why did you decide to Hexit,
Slow it down and Perplexit,
So confuse and Complexit,
Try and reverse and then Wrexit,
With you we now feel very Vexit,
So now stop your betrayal,
It’s time for you to Corexit.

It’s simple enough,
Brexit does mean Brexit
So save our democracy,
And please, please -
Just Exit!