GUERNICA STILL BURNS

 

The picador’s dying horse screams

the press lies trampled in reams

a dead matador holds a broken sword

a relieved bull looks on ignoring

mother and baby lying dead

and the dying with the corpse being wed

Spain has lost its compassion

a monstrous war is in session

this is not a medieval scene

an electric light bulb beams

Guernica

Picasso mostly remembered only by

grandpa

the German Condor League has been here

1630 hours Monday April 26th 1937 the year

for two hours the planes high in the sky

safe from rifle and machine-gunfire

says bye bye

still the world pays homage to this mural

while thinking in the plural

bombs rain down on many populations

Britain France Russia the US are in copulation

some nations can do no wrong

it depends on where your thinking belongs

meanwhile Guernica still burns and glows

remember that mother with baby in tow

that shows

how animals and humans in their dying seconds

share grotesque looks as death beckons

like the placid bull we look on relieved

that we have been reprieved.

 

Wilson John Haire. 21st January, 2016