Isn’t it bad enough that I get told to think reverentially of you?

That by some magical decree of someone’s simple x, my life

is indebted to a system that is morally corrupt

and yet you now say I should mourn for one just as bad,

if not worse.

 

If I had been a turkey and voted for Christmas’ past

I could understand being placed into an oven and forced

to sweat, over and over as the thought of the carving knife plunged,

steel tipped into my breast…

but once more instead you shake my hand

and plunge the dagger into my back instead.

 

Was Churchill’s statue placed just there

to willowy eyes weep and grim faced salute

a man who took his opponents hands

clasped them tightly and offered nothing in return?

Or was it to remind a nation of what goes on,

no longer behind the scenes, but in open view,

and applauded by the outrageous

for its transparency to show hate of its own people.

 

Why do you lower a flag for him?

I will not mourn, I will not mourn for you

when the time comes.

 

Ian D. Hall