WE, US, THE PEOPLE

Did you think
it was nothing to do with you?
With me, us, the others?
That we are free and innocent
of the murders and massacres
in darkest Afrik?
When it is western money,
western weaponry
that fund, enable
and set the precedent.
Our tax-paying labours
our banks and businesses
pulling the strings, ticking the boxes
pressing the buttons
and totting up the profits
with political spin greasing the wheels,
passing the can,
soothing the consciences
and distancing the connections
between the doer and the deeds.

What is new?
Roman bearers of bad tidings
were knifed
white witches were burned.
Mafia assassins were appointed
by remote control
Pontius Pilates’ descendants
endlessly wash their hands of blood;
Chains of command, following orders,
is the justification;
no-one to blame.
No such thing as accountability
or Justice.

Dirty work is always done by the riff raff and cannon fodder.
Who pays the price
but the whipping boys?
Along with inevitable collateral damage
which is regarded as no-one’s
business.

The days of demagogues
are not long gone
but disport themselves now
in democratic disguises
with humanitarian rhetoric;
or get away with
shameless displays of overt force
and power-mongering;
to which school-marmy tut-tuts
and threats of sanctions
from other sovereign states
promotes nothing, changes nothing
and - who cares! -
as only the hoi poloi suffer.

The policy and practise is
to lock up, sedate, shoot
or abduct the ringleaders;
then the troublesome masses
will go home, dissipate, lose direction.
Burn the books and pamphlets!
Torch the evidence.
Play for time with phoney blandishments
and benefits,
penalise loved ones.
Shut down social media.

As if these masses
- we, us, the people,
are so dumb and dim as to buy it
and don’t see through those cries of “Fake”,
the glazed eyes and ego-postures
of the bully-bosses.

As if the blood spilt and lives lost
have no power or consequence.

As if there is no cosmic law,
no source of truth
or balance.