madabout words...

Another triumph for Crysse as spoken word co-ordinator - performing in the Merlin Theatre foyer on Friday 12th May, part of her madabout words event.

Not a trek event, but Crysse took the opportunity after my Twenty- first Century Trenches poem to give the Auction of Promises and Dreams a plug - listings on the www.wychhaz.co.uk site, brilliant Mike, thank you! Although my collecting tins hadn't arrived, we collected nearly £10 from just that passing mention during the show (aren't people round 'ere supportive!).

and here's the poem:

Twenty-first Century Trenches

I’m still too young to remember how

after the war

everyone was glad – but still cautious

not yet free from rationing

or fear

there was nuclear war to beware now

before

it was all much more immediate

you could dodge

targeted devastation

bomb-dropped from above

run from

strafing tank turrets

if not

storm troopers pouring through ghettoes

pursuing hiding, hidden Jews

slip-sliding trench warfare

howitzers and diseased mud

culling humanity

a massive mincer chewing through nations

nuclear warheads upped the ante exponentially

I’m still too young

will always be too young

to remember that

we have our own war

our own 21^st century trenches

where drugs and blood-borne viruses

alcohol and anxieties

cut swathes through society

sick with cancerous debts

our young men stripped of vitality and dignity

our women rendered bereft of self-respect

by dependencies

shame hides with cowardice

in dark and lonely places