S.O.S

~

we sit and blankly 

stare at angry flames 

that cackle and spit like 

disgruntled village elders

whose toothless gobbets 

sizzle madly on the hearth

…___…

we glumly consider how

our world began to eat itself,

gluttonously consuming the 

bounteous fruit we’d

nurtured in the rich 

alluvium of our tolerance

…___…

we gorged ourselves on 

the nutrients of equality

drank deeply from the 

everlasting fountain of 

liberal consciousness

whilst bathing naked in 

tepid oxygen of freedom

…___…

but now we choke 

whilst smiling, as our

satiated innocence 

ebbs away to nought, 

suffocating, as our bloodied 

self-butchered tongues 

writhe as charmed snakes 

to the magnetic tune

of Gaia’s ‘pungi’ pipe

*

© Graham R Sherwood 04/24