BARCELONA
- In the restaurant gardens the sparrows
- revolve
- above the vacated table
- how to get the crumbs is
- solved
- by the most able
- the cat stalks
- springs
- and walks
- its mouth full
- of twitching feathers
- they scatter
- a minute
- re-gather
- revolve
- over the vacated table
- twittering
- reassured
- the tourists
- babel
Wilson John Haire
GAZA CITY
- Be reminded of Israeli atrocities
- don’t let the years ease the pain
- through your liberal generosity
- though you watched it
- through glass
- without the putrid smell
- via the box of the mass
- the nostrils not blocked
- from dust berserk
- from enemy incoming
- shells
- nor do you feel the heat
- from the burning rubble
- but from under it
- you heard the cries
- didn’t see six blackened bodies
- a mother and baby welded together
- a father smothered by his three young sons
- in panic
- lies
- on tin stretchers
- one alive
- a nine year old girl legs flailing
- unconscious trying to
- run
- then silence
- she thinks she dies
- they who did it
- plead anti-Semitism
- plead Holocaust
- take out writs
- plead military hardware
- from the land
- of burger and fries
Wilson John Haire
HALLELUJAH!
- Once it was the lone image of the man
- nailed to the cross
- a sacrifice for the benefit of humanity
- for that Garden of Eden loss
- the saints in alabaster
- or if you prefer
- the tin church of the pastor
- but yesterday
- a new god was born
- in Trafalgar Square
- to convey
- forlorn
- the mud and sand soldier
- a statue of his kind
- in public glare
- his moulder
- sells WW1
- sells the khaki cross
- and invites you to try it on
- for size
- for there are future battles
- to be won
- now comes the rain
- the melt
- but it’s not for you
- he dies
- as his outer coat washes away
- to his pelt
- just emulate
- this bloody puddle
- you survey
- it’s your sacrifice
- your fate
- lying on your back
- it’s fear and hate
- will one leg suffice
- two thousand miles away
- in some sun-seared rubble
- Hallelujah!
Wilson John Haire
DID YOU PACK THIS BOMBER YOURSELF
- He restricts Muslims from half a dozen
- nations
- from entering the USA
- but it’s damnation
- to passports
- for his aerial bombers
- sent to flay
- those whom he purports
- will slay
Wilson John Haire.
Labour Affairs Magazine 