in the crossfire

put on a pedestal and talk

that’s what I was told to do

when the darkest nights have their diabolical blast

and the days go hand in hand with it;

I never speak unnecessarily

and now I was compelled to do so in spite of my inability

to explain this doomed environment

which I don’t understand and in which I don’t want to be;

everything hurts

from head to heart and from finger to foot

nothing seems to soothe

these broken nerves and bones

need urgent repair, can’t fix others;

they don’t realise how much it costs

to lift their drastic foreign affairs

even if they are on top of what they’ve got

yet they never asked themselves

a single question of that

destroying someone with just one word –

gesture not worth interpreting;

but I know that in the end

they have to deal with the consequences

of their presumably lavish life

I don’t think it’s lavish, if it’s devoid of humanity;

from top to bottom and from right to left

everywhere lie vestiges

and shards of my mouth

and now I’m thinking

I shouldn’t have opened my beak anyhow

to all concerned

and that would be it –

spoken from the highest point of my mental capacity

*

December 2022

***

Thank you for reading!