Collateral Damage

I’m cross-posting this on my two main platforms, because I think it’s important. I saw an interview with Netanyahu last night and wrote this while I was watching. He is, of course, not alone in ignoring the real victims on all sides of war.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

It happens in war, he says,
One of all leaders who believe
Collateral damage is acceptable.

Blood runs through us all, and
Some are too cowardly and
Well-protected to lose theirs.

He smiles into the camera.
It’s not his loss, nor are the
Deaths of citizens across the border

A border he wants to erase to
Enrich himself. These stories repeat
Around the globe.

These crimes repeat
Repeat repeat
In every country in war.

There is no place not at war
In this treacherous world where
Smiles cover the sins of power.

R 02/04/2024 22:09

Scribbling the above while watching the news did remind me how much I’m craving to get some new writing done. It’s all very well recording spoken word material that I’ve already written, making new tunes for that, and pondering the edits needed for the two novels I’m planning this year, but it’s not the same as just sitting down and writing at full blast. And I’d said to Ren I would try to write a sonnet at the weekend, and never did. I blame my bad back. It reduces my pace at everything by half. And I’m working very hard to try to alleviate the symptoms (and the causes as far as I can, although most of them lie so far in my past I can barely remember them.