Notes on Remembrance? Forget It!

 

My use of the word Pogrom in my poem is deliberate, not flippant. I used it to draw attention to its use by lying news / propaganda outlets with reference to the recent situation in Amsterdam, a deliberately emotive and offensive trivialisation of the horrific reality of pogroms in Russia, and of events such as Kristallnacht. Its use there, was a cynical...

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These children have shining eyes yet sharp,

A strength carved deep upon each face.

 

They are not princes or princesses from a fairy tale;

They are real, present on the earth of Gaza, full of pain and trials.

Their story is recorded without the embellishment of fantasy,

Sending a message to awaken the human conscience,

Which has dulled under the glitter of a fleeting world.

...

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Gaza is forced onto a boundless stage,

A spectacle of endless conflict,

In a world where roles are chosen by power

 

Trump says, "Welcome to the show!" 

He knows his role, he knows his lines, 

Staging a political performance beneath the guise of humanity

 

Upon the stage owned by the United Nations, 

They send hollow promises to Gaza, 

Leaving them choking in the ...

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Thus spake the left cheek of le grand derrière,

“Every child, every person, deserves to be respected”;

No respect though was shown to a fearless dissenter,

With scorn, every word from that cheek was inflected,

When questioned about killing those children in Gaza,

Their gallant defender was manhandled, ejected,

Then slammed in a van by democracy’s rozzers,

That, fellow citizens...

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That jangling tune 
told of sweet times ahead
Children playing with hosepipes 
on hot summer streets
and gleaming bikes ridden
across freshly swept pavements
How the ice cream van 
sparked joy and hope
O, the heady idyl 
of childhood…

Now the ice cream van 
toils a different purpose
macabre and tuneless
its contents chilling
The limbs of children
parts of mothers
Lifeless figures...

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Dreaming of leaving

       This rock above my

             Head

 

Dreaming of leaving

The thought you are dead

 

Dreaming of leaving

 

Going back to when I

played here, running up

the path mama mama

kissing your sweet forehead

 

now motionless and

       cold

 

Dreaming of leaving

 

                                 Not wishing to go

...

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And so it goes

On

People protest

Against dead bodies

“They’re all terrorists

each and every one”

He says, they say

 

And so it goes on

 

The people are lost

Picking through rubble

Discovering their loved ones

Dead clothes

 

 

But the truth is being hidden

Sanitised by the news

The killing is not so awful

They plead

 

And so...

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Perhaps you’re wondering why you got the sack?

For years now, I’ve not bought our local rag,

not bought the cut and paste of client hacks,

who’d not report on genocide of a nation,

for fear of being murdered on The Strip,  

tell lie on lie, warmongering information,

co-lateral damage? say it’s just a blip,

from Iraq to Gaza, murderous tongues you wag.

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I saw 

The flare of the gun

Against the setting sun

 

My baby's smiling face

I kept within a lonely space

 

My wife's hand in mine

For one final time 

 

I saw

The blood from my chest

Sending my body to rest

 

The future I thought would be

Drift away to a blood red sea

 

The hands of Time slowly cease

Feeling a weary inner peace

 

I saw

...

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Rachel touts for votes in Leeds,

but Rachel Gen O’ Cide is fleet,

yes, Rachel and her minder run

from awkward questions on our streets;

that mother’s questions ain’t no fun;

have you had a drink of water?

have you eaten more than crumbs?

Gaza’s children have to dig

for water whilst they’re dodging bombs,

Rachel, do you give a fig?

have you had to dig your daughter

...

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“Made in Britain”, once a mark of highest quality,

To Gaza, with love, we send white-hot death from above,

Cruel Britannia stoops to utter depravity.  

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How do you fancy ripping tents up, Angie,

instead of nipping to the corner shop?

Here in the town of Stockport, Lancashire,

when sirens sounded, townsfolk gratefully fled

to shelter under arches stout and strong;

but now, the stench of death pervades the air,

the body politic is now corrupt;

no air raid shelters for the innocents

of Gaza under rubble, three months gone;

...

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Welcome to Britain, madam Ambassador for Genocide;

this carpet’s the latest fashion, Slaughterhouse Red.

Per Ardua ad Astra is how they died,

a diet of porky pies, what they were fed, 

“We will remember them”, cry solemn parrots, 

ad nauseam, per annum, dog-whistled, 

forgetting stick, they much prefer those carrots,

warmongering Lords want us protestors kettled; 

oh yes, ...

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On Cable Street in ‘thirty-six

they said ¡No Pasarán! keeping Fascists at bay

with chamber-pots pouring, with fists kicks and bricks.

But on that hypocrites’s watch, in ‘twenty-three,

they said “¡Pasarán! it’s the Fascists field day”,

Spanish Nazis and Blackshirt admirers roamed free

on Preston’s streets, decency slayed;  

our ex-home secretary now protests for genocide,

...

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Vent your anger on people in small boats,

on long-haired gorgeous blokes, who like to wear skirts;

forget the yachts sailed by millionaire thieving scrotes,

forget who welcomed to the UK, Nazis and Blackshirts,

facts indeed are sacred, as someone said,

but only facts which the sewer chooses to reveal,

yes, no news is good news, what nearly thirty thousand dead?

targetted jour...

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Death is

R

O

P

P

I

N

G

 

From the skies

 

     L  lies  lifeless

     O on

 E V ery

Str E et

 

Death is

R

O

P

P

I

N

G

From the sky

 

Bodies mount up

1.500 here…

1.500 there…

 

L

         O

                 V

                          E

                                  Lies in ruins…

    ...

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Let us pretend 

that we haven’t been this way before

too recently and too often

that this is the way forward

that it is the road to the peace

which eluded you when you sent 

planes and tanks and men 

into Lebanon, Ramallah, Jenin,

Gaza, Gaza, Gaza.

 

Let us pretend

that this time will be different 

that this time will be worth it

that you can tot up the lives...

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This is not an anti-semetic poem, or anti - Israeli poem.

This is a protest poem, in protest at the violation of human rights in attacking ships laden with aid and medical supplies bound for Gaza.

Israel has the right to exist... fact.

So does Palestine... fact.

Israel cannot starve out the ...

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