Hell is Empty.

‘’Hell is Empty and All the Devils Are Here.’’

(William Shakespeare, The Tempest)

‘Learn from history,’ they say.

‘Don’t repeat the same horrors as our forebears,’ they say.

‘We must never repeat the Holocaust,’ they say.

'We must never...'

'We must never...'

'We must never...'

*

And yet

Have we ever learned from history

When millions of traumatized, malnourished mothers and children

Lie destitute in refugee camps?

Don’t we just continue committing the same atrocities as our forebears?

When fathers never return home? When there is no home anymore?

And aren’t we in the middle of another Holocaust, when simply the god one worships,

or the colour of one’s skin is reason enough to murder someone?

*

Seas of grief and agony sweep nations,

As legions of tanks and armies sweep streets,

Picking up prisoners, executing fathers, brothers, sons.

All in the name of territory.

*

Whose land is it anyway?

And why do human beings insist

On being custodians of the earth

When they want to destroy, churn, mine and burn?

Is that how we treat the one we care for?

*

So, devils, return to your hell,

Return to your blood soaked cash

And your scream riddled possessions.

But, of course,

Hell is not empty at all.

It is here.

It is here.