Friday 30 April 2021

MOSES DOWNED TOOLS

 

Earlier this week I caught on camera a reflection I had seen last year at this time. I cannot work out just what the sunlight is shining off in the sitting room but I like the result. Strangely it was not there the next day, so perhaps I was very lucky.

A brief poem that wrote itself from the first line. In the poem the Egyptian parents were not as lucky.

Industrial Action


Moses downed tools

and before the management capitulated

things turned very nasty

frogs fell from the sky alive

and children died.

Imagine that

children died.


Could you pray to a deity

that valued one child’s life over another?


When I was a child and I first heard the story of the Exodus I did not consider the pain and distress of the Egyptian parents, to lose so many children like that must have been horrific. I can only compare it to Aberfan disaster in 1966, when 116 children and 28 adults died following the collapse of a colliery spoil tip. I was 10 at the time and the photographs shocked me.

Even if, as I suspect, the story of the Exodus is untrue, I would still have doubts about praising such a deity. 

I had a zoom meeting with the Secrets the other day. This is a revision, you can read the original here

it was the size of the day and

it slipped in while he slept on


so that when he awoke

it was its sun he saw


its trees and grass he glimpsed

through its windows


his body slumbered

machines worked to keep him stable


it was large

yet it was not infinite


he knew on his solo walks

in the empty park just where to stop


for one step more and he would have been

enmeshed in its membrane


the ceaseless machines watched over

his silent hospital room


What's changed is the layout, it is now in couplets. I think this one is slowly evolving, watch this space.

The talented Annabelle Chvostek is celebrating 25 years as a professional music ian this week. Congratulations Annabelle! Here is the title track from her latest album.

Until next time.

No comments:

Post a Comment