always on the streets

always on the streets
rain

always we are told
there was sin
what we did
what we did not
just being born on this
the wrong side of wrath

on the streets distance
and always destruction
here among the rubble

desolation
so little come and go
as no-one begs
the question
why

always on the streets
someone else’s madhouse
affluence out of control
for someone else again
to suffer the want of it

always in the news
invention approximates truth
if truth should it exist at all
is a leaf in the wind
too fragile to do anything
but wither

on the streets is the secret
powerful people know and keep
taking truth to be pliable,
cold clay to mould as their wisdom

always
on the streets
that never intersect
the desolate and desperate
stagger through chaos
stone and debris for many
smoke and mirrors
for our stupid selves

on the streets
refugees go running for life
crying out for an end to fear and burning
while we cower in a second-hand hell
calling for an end to what is done
and justified in our stolen names

© BH, 2018

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Another piece of anti-war. It’s like people don’t matter when the stakes are high. Politically, that is. High stakes, of course, mean budgets are sky high, at least as far as weaponry is concerned. Collateral damage is a given. The excuses of plausible deniability are already written.

Always, the poor bastards on the streets get it while other poor bastards, only further up the pecking order, get the whole shebang justified in their name.

Complete cynical twaddle.

This caustic sentiment of mine, apart from a lifetime of peacenikery, was ignited (this time) by our government’s decision to take action on Syria without even a vote - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43719284 

Shameful. 

But them’s the real bastards.