broken heads and bodies broken
strewn miles along the olive groves
I don’t recall the earth ever said
it had any need for our murderous blood
Now it must drink fast
the red sea of unending regret
The sun does not care what it shines upon
it just shines
The dead will know nothing now
only the last lie they believed
#Gaza
Someone says
this day too shall pass
just like another day he heard
so knows
or even the other day he knows not
Yes
there is more death with every season
not quite a bad harvest you know
Both sides now
the priests and the poets have much more work to do
#Iraq
A slit throat is dumb
it does not speak
Do you remember the screams you cried
that first moment you came to life
and plunged hard to grab a winning part
in this endless cruel game
Now this is here when you could tell
what you did and what you said
in witness to the heart of darkness
A slit throat is dumb and deaf
is it a secret
#Africa
I stand outside
the gates of this house
The house they say
is of some such gods
I call to them
who live inside
to break the walls
and the paid collars of their silence
I must get inside
the gates of this house
the house they say is of some such gods
I get inside
and come out again
for who can wait for
nothing
#India
Now would you say
there are more names
Names with maps
and flags with names
Make out this list quick
it keeps getting longer
Make out the list quick
here in this verse
#Libya
#Syria
#Iran
#Afghanistan
#SriLanka
#Bangladesh
#Ukraine
#Pakistan
#Mexico
#Chechnya
#Indonesia
#Bosnia
#Cambodia
#Nicaragua
#Chile
#Korea
#Vietnam
########
Everybody loves you so you say
the land of the just
and the waking dream
Your name i find in the deathly screams
including this here which is mine
Every man needs the earth to stand upon
the ground beneath your feet is breaking
Louder louder than your stone deaf silence
the voices in a rumble waking
Look across your forgotten sky
blood spattered now the stars and stripes
What need for you to turn the earth
in your shadow the maps are breaking
I call out your forgotten name
that one from your forgotten dream
This song here is for that name
Who are you
#America
MM 2014
From ‘Democracy with a #Tag’