Phosphorescence: glowing in darkness
Mexican massacres sound like
a rustle
like a half gust of wind
and then nothing
to the selective hearing of the global media
starvation is even quieter
starvation in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Chad
is cloud breath, a short gaze
too-tired farewell
so normalised it is just a clock ticking
at the bottom of the world
Gazan girl
was a big piece of sun
tangerine smile that made others’ hearts tinge warm
And now she is gone
It is time to remember
that each person
is a phosphorescent being
with their own latticed life chapters,
aches, giggles, strange ideas and itchy toes
and that when bombs rain
and when food is denied
and when factories enslave
and when the volume, the depth of information
is turned right down
these clumsy, compelling
miracles
are being
murdered
and life itself reinterpreted as a festival of cruelty
a destruction craving
a waste of time
It is time now to stop
the war mongers and fossil fuel companies
that are stomping on wise macaws
feeding poets to shredders
arguing into their obedient media microphones
that rainbows and phosphorescence take up too much space
spellbinding
hoards of humans
into buying blandness
casting cities towns land
into clogged road tyranny
car park grey
concrete
death