Remembering “Le Peste”
Do you hear?
The warning bells
ringing out loudly out there
maybe in here.
Can you not see?
The beacons flaring
or hear the alarm called out
the alarm is being called out!
Loud and clear.
Can you not hear?
Is this a contagion?
that leaves people blind
unable to hear lies
or prevents the smell
of putrefying corruption
entering our nostrils
that once upon a time
would make us vomit
and spit with distaste.
Or a disease that stops
people hearing
the bland hypocrisy
the use of words
that have a completely
different meaning
marking a different
hidden intention.
Was this plague
carried by the fleas
of the rats swarm?
Or was it carried
on the west wind
by the Jet stream
that cold high mistral
blowing wild across
the Atlantic sea
and moved through
the continent
a malignant spore
that eats at our hearts
so that we feel nothing
so that we no longer
feel anything at all.
And so the dictators
breed and grow fat
like maggots squirming
in the warm fetid stench
of the carcasses sodden
slow smouldering decay.
And when the alarm
rings out
watch out
“the plague”
has set on our land
is loose in our world.
Do we mistake the bells warning toll
for the wedding bells peel?
Is it the nature
of this disease
to turn one thing
into another
so that we are pleased
but do not see
the blight of our
mistaken judgement.
And so we all march
to the drum beat
of that old song
“Work makes you free”
and so the hours stretch
to pay the bills
so that one job
becomes two or three!
When will the children
be required to work?
The younger the better…
All are welcome!
The clock chimes
backward in its block
and no one lifts
a straightened finger
of the left hand
to put the pendulum’s
measure in its place,
and open people’s eyes ,
to see the gored butchers,
slice the life’s breath
from our short lives.
I hear you say
the contagion
is just gadgets
and electronic wizardry
that urges us
to look the other way.
and tells us only
only when we have more
will we be really happy.
Is this a contagion?
that leaves people blind
unable to hear lies
or prevent the smell
of putrefying corruption
that once upon a time
would make us vomit
warn us
so that we armed ourselves
against such a threat.
in fierce determination.
Less not more! Less not more!
Resist! Defy! Stay Strong!
In tribute to Albert Camus’ The Plague.
©robcullen2015
