An elegy

Nice, Berlin, Istanbul, Baghdad, St Petersberg, London, Stockholm, Paris...

An elegy

Another week, another street,

Another evil deed to greet.

Evil that is intolerant,

Of the fragile and innocent.

Before the bewildered eyes are dried,

The falsehoods are amplified.

Human weakness and conceit,

Make the dais and lecterns bleat.

Through an empty sympathy,

And the droning litany,

The injured are asked to cede,

The headlines have all agreed.

And all the experts will talk,

In their apathetic flock,

How to manage the pain;

All to suffer it again.

Discussing who or what to blame,

Has become the compulsory game.

In the shadow of the din,

The evil will once more sin.

Clinging to normality,

Desperate for banality,

Abide the intolerable,

Suffer the insufferable.

Those who trust ears more than eyes,

Soon will have no place to hide.

Their platitudes of unfit qualms,

Begin to sound as hollow as drums.

The messages of the just must amplify,

The clarion of the brave must vivify,

The ironic light must flash bright,

May its flame never vanish, never die.