Khalpe
It is called Aleppo now
Halaba of the silk road
That whiteness
Of marble
Of the white soils
And now death descends from the air
In barrels
Filled with chemicals
Or those bomblets
Frozen figures
The murderous rage
Of a dictator
Backed by another
Who wants to stake a claim
Putin your hands run with blood
And your eyes are filled
With the lies and denial
That tyrants always make
The inhumanity
Is describable
The bombs fall
On hospitals
Even the dying are not safe
This grotesque re-enactment
Of the butchery of the
Basque people
Of Guernica, of Lidice and Lezaky
There are so many more
Testament to the barbarity
That humans unleash
And the useless statements of poets
And artists
Who talk endlessly of shame
Even my old tailor
From the Penygraig Cooperative Society
Trevor Powell by name
Made his way to Spain to fight
While the great powers looked on
With indifference
While totalitarian regimes
Destroyed a generation of lives
We need to walk the streets
Make it plain
Make our voices heard
And don’t stop!
Never stop!
Until this barbarism is brought to an end!
