Am I scared

of the prospect of World War Three

breaking out

in my lifetime, of course I am,

it is even more worrying

when my children

have not had the chance to even be grown up,

take the first plunge into the lie we call existence,

servitude, being told to pay to be scared,

to feel insignificant

when placed next to the well oiled machine,

the wreck and the reckless of something

that was extraordinary, watch them grow

sick in old age as they once mourned

me close to the grave…

Do I worry about World War Three,

of a chump having his finger poised

with declarations and threats…

Yes,

but I worry about my hospital,

any future grandchildren’s education,

about fairness, about equality, about the starving,

the homeless, the unwanted, the refugee crisis,

the dropping of bombs on civilians,

of government peddled lies, about nurses

not being paid enough, of corporation skulduggery

and the person who wouldn’t shake my hand

properly

before any thought of a nuclear war, of a bomb

filled with toxicity and the pungent smell

of chumpism

that will seal all our graves

and the shadows we leave for our children

to wipe away.

 

Ian D. Hall 2017