There must be a way

to hold the world to ransom

through the medium of peace

rather than allowing the distance

between us,

between ideology,

between deeply engrained and terrible dogmatic belief;

which allows the spread of fear and suspicion

in all things in the name of national blanket

security

and the wrath of your god.

 

I dreamed once, half asleep, caravan dust in my eye

the bed clothes strewn

to all corners of the narrow bed and leaving me

cold and naked,

on a dark terrible morning, thunder cracking the sky

apart like a distorted, deformed phone call from someone

you dislike, who barks instructions with the appetite

of a sadist and with the power of badly played

saxophone,

I dreamed of the end, I saw the flash of the lightning bolt

and I saw into forever,

my eyes shaded pale and forever blind

to the decay

falling like softly driven snow

around me.

 

I wish I had known the brave women of Greenham

for they truly understood

how to hold the world to ransom

and I feel the warmth of their convictions

as I ask to join the fight

against the lightning

and the distorted barbaric, sadist

phone call.

 

Ian D. Hall 2015