not here / thoroughly by Reuben Woolley

I am not a silent poet

they want to take us

take us

squirming

……………….call

time                 here

………halfway

where the water

………………..never ends

nor erring now                        eyes

on careful

………………..steps

i’m absent

in my loneliness

will be a short             year

riding              fast

through all the slick abuse

after all

we came to this

in daylight

……………………………………stepping

in our own air

………………….breathing

From my book, skins, published by Hesterglock Press. All the profits from this book go to CalAid, an organisation working with the refugees in Calais. https://hesterglockpress.wordpress.com/reuben-woolley-skins/

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Life jacket by Dave Urwin

I am not a silent poet

a mountain

of discarded

life

jackets in bright and happy colours

idyllic island of dreams

destination Mediterranean

life

jacket

made it

to lie

free

on the beach;

further north,

seeking fresh pasture,

cattle

are herded behind

barbed wire

rubber bullets

tear gas

life

jacket

left behind

blood rivers flowing

uphill

north and west

away from that sea.

..

For further poems by Dave Urwin go tohttps://jadedmountain.wordpress.com

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A History Lesson by Mandy Macdonald

I am not a silent poet

Strathnaver, May 1819:

They smashed through our windows,

they tore off our doors,

they burned our roofs of peat and living turf.

In a cold springtime,

they left our children wailing, our elders dying, our herds scattered in terror.

They drove us into ships, into the sea.

In a hundred years

there will be nothing to see in this place

but tumbled stones, faint hollows

where once neat tighean stood,

long-cold hearths among the grass and nettles,

bright saplings of rowan.

Their magic did not save us.

Calais, March 2016:

Here we have

no windows, no doors,

no roof

They drive us from the shelters of canvas, cardboard, plastic, duct tape, rope,

in which we have barely endured the winter.

They set fire to our tents and shacks;

everything is gone, everything is mud,

everything mangled, suffocated in mud.

In this alien place rain falls all the time

but they…

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politics three

sonja benskin mesher

cleaned your teeth?

may be neurotypical,

some do that.

picked your nose

right off.

it is a habit

as is mentioning

gender

which we will not.

sbm.

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#politics

sonja benskin mesher

‘ this clothes thing is getting on my nerves’

said the bear.

‘i am exactly similar in that i wears what i like, no nonsense,

a satin dress with pearls’

yes.

‘all this fuss and dress code is so out of date, get real’,

he said.

sbm.

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