Autumn edge
I count the species in the orchard hedge
Maple, Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Hazel thrive
Blackberry and Honeysuckle intertwine
Overgrown Elder pruned and cut hard
Two Oaks, two tall Maples break the line
A Red Admiral sits on a Buddleia leaf
Needing to find a place to hibernate
An idyllic scene a man laying a hedge
The clear blue skies under an autumn sun
But never far from my mind that other world
Of war in Syria, the unrelenting brutality
And the suffering of people in these times
And of the silence of people of my kind
And of the silence, the silent unravelling
Of the myth of the Wests superiority
Of the myth of the Wests democracy
Of the myth of the Wests morality
We assume the cloak of Pontius Pilate
And wash our hands of responsibility.
RAC