Autumn Edge
I count the species in the orchard hedge
Maple, Blackthorn, Hawthorn and Hazel thrive
Blackberry and Honeysuckle intertwine
Elder pruned and cut hard to renew
two Oaks, two tall Maples break the line
a Red Admiral sits on a Buddleia leaf
needing to find a place to hibernate.
An idyllic scene a man laying a hedge
the clear blue skies under an autumn sun
but never far from my mind that other world
Of war in Syria, the unrelenting brutality
and the suffering of people in these times
and of the silence of people of my kind
and of the silence, the discordant unravelling
of the myth of the Wests superiority
of the myth of the Wests democracy
of the myth of the Wests morality.
Politicians assume the cloak of Pontius Pilate
and wash their hands of responsibility.
©robcullen2016
