Unseen Wounds

Unseen Wounds

The wounds unseen

                Bleed into the mind.

Some will bleed forever

                Others leave a deep scar.

Lives have disappeared,

                Homes smashed.

Possessions lost,

                Stolen by a Russian Czar.

What help can we give

                To those who have

                                Been hurt so much?

Who mourn their loved ones?

Who can heal

                Wounds cut so deep

                                Into the tissues of brains?

Where do we find the funds?

Opher – 26.4.2022

The physical damage is obvious – the destroyed houses, the blown up schools and hospitals, bleeding, broken bodies and heaps of corpses tossed into mass graves.

The physical destruction wrought by war is devastating.

What is not so obvious are the wounds cut into peoples’ minds.

Those grieving for destroyed lives, for loved ones killed or maimed, for what should have been. Those who have lost so much.

What cannot be seen are the traumas created by witnessing the horrors, seeing death, seeing the dead bodies of those you have loved.

These images cannot be erased. These fears and grief cannot be comforted away.

These ae the injuries that destroy minds and last a lifetime.

War creates trauma.

Nineteen Fourteen

Nineteen Fourteen

It is twenty twenty two

                But in Ukraine

                                It is nineteen fourteen.

Russia has unleashed

                A reign of terror

                                Like we have rarely seen.

In Chechnya and Syria

                They practiced

                                Their Evil art.

Firing shells and missiles

                To blow

                                The cities apart.

They are digging trenches

                One again

In European cities civilisation

                Is down the drain.

Putin is gaily singing

                Death’s refrain.

It is twenty twenty two

                But in Ukraine

                                It is nineteen fourteen.

Russia has unleashed

                A reign of terror

                                Like we have rarely seen.

Opher 22.4.2022

We like to think of ourselves as civilised – but we’re not.

We like to think we are intelligent – but we’re not.

We like to think that human civilisation has become advanced – but it hasn’t.

We like to think we have become wise and sophisticated – but we haven’t.

We’re still the same aggressive, violent, stupid, greedy, paranoid apes we’ve always been. We’re still the short-sighted idiots who fight.

Everything is a thin veneer.

Forecast of War

Forecast of War

The government has issued a red alert.

The approaching storm is forecast to bring much devastation to the whole area.

It will start with a hail of incoming missiles, squalls of rockets, and gusts of smoke interspersed with light, patchy, infantry.

This will be followed by prolonged showers of shells along with localised bombing, accompanied by blasts of intense heat. There will be a loud droning and stratospheric vapour trails inducing intense periods of terror.

People are asked to stay under cover until the storm has passed and all tanks are empty. There is danger of falling masonry and low flying helicopters.

Shortly after the first onslaught another front is forecast to charge through, bringing strong winds of disillusionment, a severe rise in blood pressure, with localised tornados of fear and horror, caused by drifts of corpses, leading to floods of tears.

Once the storm has passed it will leave heavy bursts of permanent trauma and emotional whirlwinds in its wake. The aftermath will entail dealing with much psychological debris and emotional damage.

There is concern among forecasters that these extreme events are merely the beginning of political climate change. The normal interchange of current affairs has been knocked off kilter by large flurries of greed, lust and paranoia, leading to extensive frosty relations. They are concerned that we are heading for a new age where underlying trends are much hotter and more volatile.

Forecasters are presently studying the skies for any clouds of ballistic missiles which could herald a cataclysmic event likely to result in a permanent winter.

They remain hopeful that we can avert disaster through global cooperation and good will.

First, we must weather the storm. Stay safe. We are subject to forces beyond our control.

Opher 2.4.2022

This has to be read in the voice of a weather forecaster.

I’m not sure that it is a poem, as such. But then what is?

I was also not sure whether it was making too light of something that is so horrific.

Why are human beings so mindlessly nasty?

Can violence ever be an answer to anything? I’ll ask Will Self.

War is diabolical and all who practice it should be locked up! The damage it does to human minds is permanent. No wonder so much of human civilisation is such a mess. Most people are screwed up due to violence.

The victims become perpetrators.

Kill to Liberate

Kill to Liberate

We come to liberate!

                But our brothers hate us!

Sent to save them;

                They abuse and bait us!

It’s not a war –

                A military manoeuvre!

Ridding neo-Nazis

                Could have gone smoother.

Ungrateful people

                Don’t want saving.

Call us fascists.

                Say we’re enslaving.

We’ve had to bomb them.

                Kill them, rape them!

That will teach them!

                We’ll liberate them!

Opher – 31.3.2022

Putin told us that this was merely a military manoeuvre to liberate the Ukrainian people from neo-Nazis enslavement.

He rapidly discovered that the Ukrainian people did not want ‘liberating’, indeed they saw the Russians as enslavers. The resistance was ferocious. The ungrateful population took up arms and fought the invaders off.

The Russian superpower proved to be impotent. They were killed by the thousand. Their tanks and planes were destroyed. The war rapidly turned into a disaster.

Frustrated, the Russians took to long-distance destruction of Ukrainian cities, to deliberately targeting women and children, to raping and killing.

Kill to liberate.

Kill to liberate.

War crimes galore!

Power and Fear

Power and Fear

Power and fear

                The only game in town.

Terror and death

                When the chips are down.

Nobody matters.

                A numbers game.

Winning and losing

                In the arena of shame.

Unleashing war;

                A battle of wits.

Collateral damage

                Where the missile hits.

Nothing matters

                But power and wealth.

Brutal terror

                Or intrigue and stealth.

Games of power;

                Win at all cost.

Cities into rubble;

                Nuclear holocaust.

Opher – 16.3.2022

In among these games of power ordinary people are like ants trampled under hobnail boots – of little consideration.

Civilisation is a transparent film over a reality that has not changed through the centuries. Technology has merely altered the size of the chips. There is more to lose.

Political games are played out over a global stage. The powerful vie for position, people and cities are mere bargaining chips as they up the ante.

Power is a strong drug.

Wealth is another.

The whole of history has been the tale of selfishness and greed.

Civilisation is an illusion.

Human being could build a world of beauty and fulfilment for all. But some want it all. They are prepared to destroy it all so that they can have what they want.

Power and wealth has no room for wisdom or compassion.

A Big Black Cloud

A Big Black Cloud

There was a big black cloud

                In the deep blue sky.

One moment sunshine

                Then wondering why.

We were shopping,

                Eating meals,

                                Laughing and planning

                                                Trips to the cinema.

Tanks rolled down the streets

                With bullets

                                Shells and missiles

                                                A howling, satanic choir.

No more normal.

                Ordinary forever gone.

After the days of terror

                Life is always wrong.

Opher – 5.4.2022

In this day and age it is hard to imagine the barbarity of war coming out of the blue.

This is Europe in 2022!

It’s barbaric.

I do not believe that the Ukrainian people really believed it would happen. One minute they were living normal lives in modern cities and the next they were hiding in cellars as the Russians turned their cities to rubble.

We Have War

We Have War

We have love.

                We have art.

                                We have music,

Architecture,

                Literature

                                And dance.

We have war.

There’s the spirit.

                There’s the sea,

                                The sun

                                                And nature’s

                                                                Poetry.

There’s war.

We have life,

                Philosophy,

                                Wonder and awe,

                                                Guiding us

                                                                To what life’s for.

Then we have war.

Opher – 31.3.2022

Mankind is capable of great things yet while we have war it all counts for nothing.

There is violence, there is hatred and there is war.

War negates everything.

We build things up, nurture and create and war reduces it to nothing.

Death, rape, trauma and agony. War and violence is the greatest flaw in our nature. It feeds on greed and the lust for power.

Fighting

Fighting

We fight for the land

For our families and freedom.

We fight for democracy

Against becoming a fiefdom.

We fight with fury

Resolute and determined

Never to be defeated;

Never undermined.

We have everything to lose

And everything to win.

It’s all or nothing

That’s what we’re risking.

This is existential!

There’s no room for compromise.

Putin can go fuck himself!

We’re through with all his lies!!

Opher – 7.3.2022

It is obvious that Putin has bitten off more than he can chew. Ukraine is not a pushover. They do not welcome Russians with open arms. They have taken up arms, constructed barricades, made Molotov cocktails and are preparing to fight to the death.

The troops have low morale, their forces bogged down, with generals being killed, tanks bogged down and planes shot out of the skies. All the Russians can do is lay siege and pound civilians with artillery and missiles from a distance. All the might of Russia is being shown up for what it is – bluster – a poorly trained ramshackle army with substandard equipment.

Kick out the War Criminals!!

Long Live Ukraine!!

No War!! No War!!

No War!! No War!!

No War!!  No War!!

There is no war!

                That’s fake news!

To say there is

                Is worth fifteen years!

No War!!  No War!!

Controlling the narrative,

                Suppressing dialogue,

This is the truth!

                Shout the puppeteers!

No War!!  No War!!

Putin’s in control.

                Tanks and troops

Are peace keepers.

                Have no fears.

No War!!  No War!!

Destruction is from

                Ukranian insurgents.

Russians bring chocolate and hope

                (death and tears)!!

No War!!  No War!!

Opher – 5.3.2022

He who controls the narrative controls the people. The news is being suppressed, the people oppressed.

Putin and his oligarchs walk off with the cash while the people live in tiny apartments and eat boiled cabbage.

Communism was meant to be about equality! About the people being in charge.

This form of totalitarianism coupled with extreme inequality and a ridiculously wealthy elite is about as far away from communism as you can get. This is repressive totalitarian control.

The people are on the street. The hierarchy is crumbling fast.

The rat is trapped – a victim of his own greed and paranoia.

Trauma

Trauma

Penetrating brains

                Tiny tendrils

                                Of invisible roots.

Establishing a network

                Of fear

                                To be set in concrete;

A mesh of terror

                Frozen

                                Into circuitry

A compacted image

                Of horror

                                That can never go away.

Every explosion,

                Every death,

                                Every word,

                                                Spurt of blood,

An electric shock

                Searing minds

                                Forever.

Opher – 3.3.2022

Another generation traumatised by war. Images, thoughts and sounds locked inside minds, surfacing as vividly as in the instant they were formed.

War, the destroyer of sanity.