Watching a moth flapping about the other evening, I watched it home in and come to rest on a light shade and felt quite…envious.
Could that be because there is so much darkness across a world in 21st century mode?
THE MOTH
Globe, spinning a moth frantic to establish
a hold on time and space
I, clinging for dear life to one fragile wing,
terrified of falling
Ceiling, prised off like the lid of a jam jar by
some hungry god
Walls, collapsing to form fantastic plateaux
of paper poppies
Moth and I, eavesdropping art’s conspiracies
against history
A jealous earth, raging at the credence given
to home-grown icons
Plunged into freefall, I reach (in desperation)
for the light switch
Left to a merciless dark’s eager feeding time,
each to our own
Let the jaws of timelessness snap shut, prize
specimens in a matchbox
Copyright R. N. Taber 2008
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Just Another Day In The Terror Business
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of the death of Jean Charles de Menenez, an innocent civilian shot down in cold blood by London (UK) police officers who mistook him for a terrorist and an immediate threat to the public.
It beggars belief that the police let him get as far as boarding a tube train, where they shot him dead. He had, after all, been under surveillance since leaving home. Even more extraordinary is that no police officer has so much as been disciplined for what many people see as cold blooded murder…only we mustn’t call it that. The police acted with the best intentions. [So that’s alright then?]
We saw pictures on television of friends and family of Jean Charles leaving flowers to mark the occasion at Stockwell Underground station. Even so, I dare say it will be the next anniversary of his death before the media take up the story again.
Meanwhile, what of the poor man’s grieving family? For them, every day is an anniversary - of a life tragically and needlessly cut short.
JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE TERROR BUSINESS
Thinking a song, can’t quite recall
how it goes…
no care in the world, except having
overstayed the visa
Good job, future, youth, making all
the right moves;
station, steps, barrier, platform, train,
in everyday sequence
Suddenly, yells, gunshots ringing out,
a dead passenger;
(too late, excuses at press conferences,
conditional apologies)
We can but learn by our mistakes, let
live or die…
(ascribed to Methuselah, perfect model
for a Met police chief?)
Small change, a family’s grief in global
economics, mapped out
by politicians, invested in by religions,
held to account by arms dealers
God’s gravy train, shunted into a siding
for an overhaul;
maintenance workers told, anything goes
to restore public confidence
[From: Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]
Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of the death of Jean Charles de Menenez, an innocent civilian shot down in cold blood by London (UK) police officers who mistook him for a terrorist and an immediate threat to the public.
It beggars belief that the police let him get as far as boarding a tube train, where they shot him dead. He had, after all, been under surveillance since leaving home. Even more extraordinary is that no police officer has so much as been disciplined for what many people see as cold blooded murder…only we mustn’t call it that. The police acted with the best intentions. [So that’s alright then?]
We saw pictures on television of friends and family of Jean Charles leaving flowers to mark the occasion at Stockwell Underground station. Even so, I dare say it will be the next anniversary of his death before the media take up the story again.
Meanwhile, what of the poor man’s grieving family? For them, every day is an anniversary - of a life tragically and needlessly cut short.
JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE TERROR BUSINESS
Thinking a song, can’t quite recall
how it goes…
no care in the world, except having
overstayed the visa
Good job, future, youth, making all
the right moves;
station, steps, barrier, platform, train,
in everyday sequence
Suddenly, yells, gunshots ringing out,
a dead passenger;
(too late, excuses at press conferences,
conditional apologies)
We can but learn by our mistakes, let
live or die…
(ascribed to Methuselah, perfect model
for a Met police chief?)
Small change, a family’s grief in global
economics, mapped out
by politicians, invested in by religions,
held to account by arms dealers
God’s gravy train, shunted into a siding
for an overhaul;
maintenance workers told, anything goes
to restore public confidence
[From: Accomplices To Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]
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