What now, what is evil?

I’m sure we can agree

if killing just one child is awful,

thousands more must be

evil’s outright apogee.

No problem pegging evil.

But how to deal with evil?

Find the men (we know

it’s mainly men). Pronounce those people

lowest of the low.

Blazon what they did, and show

those men to be pure evil.

Now, certain who is evil,

you’...

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Harrogate 21/3/22

It’s when I see the kites

a family are flying on the Stray

and notice how they glint in blue and gold

belatedly I catch on, how today

the bichrome of the flag of the Ukraine

has never been completely out of sight:

I’ve seen its vivid tones unrolled

not just where you’d expect:

flourished on the apex of a pole;

sellotaped to windows or on do...

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Look at this thing, this gruesome thing, this shake-off from the slick.

A car mechanic’s rag, a bag of bile, a doodling hand that drags

a biro clot of crudeness up the beach.

This foul-up. This bird. This broken component of our world.

Then look at that: a flesh gorged kite, circling

while cluster bombs slake a starving nation’s soil.

America’s pin puckered vein, the fight for th...

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