WHITE COTTON
- West Aleppo
- they want it forgotten
- spy so many bodies wrapped in
- white cotton
- wrapped in white cotton
- instant burial that day
- wail till you drop
- curse very lowly
- no music plays
- slowly
- as they’re carried along
- to no green valley
- but to earth that grows
- a shrapnel crop
- listen out for the
- mortar’s song
- the young girl
- dreads
- Allahu Akba
- God’s in a bad mood
- today
- the world crazily
- whirls
- a foot gone a foot gone
- dress the wound in
- white cotton
- there’s plenty of
- white cotton
- no more dancing
- for this young fawn
- hope mocking life
- cries out
- it will grow again
- it will grow again
- don’t make me a wreck
- but only tears grow
- only tears grow
- dear, God, if you can send bombs
- this far
- can’t you give me my foot
- back
- the damaged building
- shudders
- throws down concrete debris
- and dust
- white cotton white cotton
- growing red as rust
Wilson John Haire.
Labour Affairs Magazine 