Overwritten/Overruled

'Censorship is the sister of dictatorship'-Stephan Zweig

In This Age

of mass public skepticism, collective non-values,
and a small a 'atheism' for the millions to follow,
art is the confession that is without absolution.
The aspiration to redemption that cannot redeem.
The more personal a work it is to the author,
the more they are celebrated and emptied out
by the media in some hollowed public persona,
as they hollow out the society their work represents.

The Scent Of Change?

In Cuba men were to have a new choice
in how to present themselves to the ladies,
though they were not to have it for very long.
Were our own dear leaders, present and past,
offered the chance to have the public
re-scented in their image,
what new kind of spin
would we sharing in
by politicising our olfactory senses?

'Markets' and Marketing

are no more than us thinking
we have bent serendipity to our will.
The more willful we become
the more we delude ourselves.

So That Is Why The News Is So Confused

It makes one almost wish the old dictatorships
were as benign as our media told us they were
when our governments wanted them as allies.

On Family Life

When flesh is heir to flesh, and heir nothing more,
the result is always going to be war.

When Nation States

move like tectonic plates
against each other
it is clear that war's ahead.
Whether via arms or through money,
life is surely going to get cheaper.
The only doubt left is how long
such a choice was in coming.