Remember,
the Rainbow Warriors
How could they be forgotten,
those heroes who risked life and limb
to staunch the insane folly
of atomic testing, spewing strontium 90
as breakfast for all
or skewering whales
mutilating any creature with remunerative assets
- tusks, horns, scales or glands
to extinction.
They put themselves on the line
Between the chopping, killing machinery and the habitat or life-form in the sights;
Under the bows of harpoon trawlers
in the path of gun, tank or gas.
Legions and generations of warriors
whether confronting inquisitional
holy horrors,
challenging ethnic persecutions,
gestapo beastiality, religious prejudices;
the unsung martyrs, champions, activists, journalists and protestors,
resisting or exposing the depravities, inhumanities of corruption and greed
upholding tiny candles before the towering flames of genocide, holocausts,
standing tall or broken,
before oppression, invasion,
the valiant ones
who redeem human honour
in the face of the concupiscence
of unremitting darkness:
frail vestiges of dignity, courage
agin collective complacency, cowardice.