I sat in the cafe as I had when a boy.

Sitting as if I'd see the world as I did back then,

When the steam from my tea cup 

snatched a rainbow from the window light

It seemed the world was full of colour 

But, now the cafe was derelict, charcoaled.

The window lay in shards & fragments 

The colours of the rainbow, repelling 

There was rot in the architecture 

of both stone & flesh

Generations of skin tones bleeding the same red

Lessons seeping into fissures of time & ignorance. 

Many thistles had grown while I sat

Creeping from blood hewn gullies 

Fire & brimstone is eternal it would seem

I tried to leave, but remembered I'd died long ago

Perhaps, humanity had too, without even realising 

I hoped not

I hoped somewhere there was still love.

My black skin had turned white

Perhaps now, I thought, I'll get some peace

Though I wasn't sure it mattered anymore 

In the end, we're all  just animals

Alpha & omega 

Biting our own hands

Until we can feed ourselves no more.