ORPHAN
- For the BBC she stood up in a punt,
- around 1991 cursing Saddam Hussein
- as a runt.
- On the waters of Shatt-al-Arab,
- scurrying arrogantly as the divine beetle
- scarab.
- This privileged Englishwoman,
- to Imperial Britain and her allies summons
- all wrath on the head of Iraq,
- for the treatment of the Shia after their attack
- that was meant to split the nation.
- Napalm caused an inhuman creation
- no doubt
- but in her shout
- the barbarous beast
- ripped open the flesh of Iraq
- with its innards hacked
- until a million lay dead,
- then as Mesopotamia still bled
- there came an orphan
- who wasn’t an orphan,
- but stolen
- and his story swollen
- through the kindness of strangers
- who took him out of their deliberate
- danger.
- One day, in 2019, physically healed and speaking
- Devon,
- it was back to mama as an adult,
- among the concrete blocks of instant heaven.
- But what big cemeteries you have!
- Not to worry the cow still
- calves.
Wilson John Haire. 15th May, 2019.
THE HORROR OF TRUTH
- When Baghdadi talks of the people of Islam
- versus the people of the Cross
- we become the damned.
- Gone is the gloss.
- Those relentless aircraft strikes
- didn’t turn off the tap
- but breached the dyke
- and leaked Muslim blood through the gap..
- The US offers 19 million pounds for his demise
- but can you kill 1.6 billion Muslims
- for that neoliberal dream that vies
- for an insane and reckless whim.
- Though there is one consolation,
- their physical harm can only be a fraction
- in answer to our causation
- that ended their nations in putrefaction,
- we still have Parliament, both Houses of Congress,
- and Brussels,
- but what about peace-of-mind?
- Now, that could be a tussle,
- or a never-again find.
Wilson John Haire. 1st of May, 2019
Labour Affairs Magazine 