July 3rd 2014
The country road unwinds
Along known contours,
Tree shadows stripe the way
While Bragg interviews academics,
Their learned radio voices discuss
‘Mrs Dalloway’, her party, her flowers.
The safety of the book’s past
Moulds a bubble of pastoral peace.
A fox with its kill in its jaws
Breaks from the undergrowth
Streaking in front of the car’s wheels,
A determined killing machine, seeking cover.
The tit for tat Middle Eastern murders
Haunting the morning news, returns,
Escape is not an option,
His nature, our nature, destroys.
The fox kills to survive,
Woolf’s party pooper commits suicide
Unable to live with WW1 memories,
But revenge is a poor motive,
Breathing hatred and self justification;
One murder is never enough,
Violence escalates, negotiation possibilities shrink
Impotence and death are the only winners.
