War Poetry

Another Imperial Day

You could be there
on a dark October night
waiting for the moment to be
swimming 'cross the freezing river
holding a plastic bag of belongings just out of the water
climbing up the banks on the other side
hiding in the trees so cold
that you hardly show as a target
on the heat seeking gear of the border patrol
but you made it, you're another one over
sleeping on a bench in a railway station
in the heart of Europe
haven't eaten anything for two days straight
but where there is a will there's always gonna be a way

And every door is guarded
and every guard costs money
so the women are bought and kept and raped and sold as slaves
because the family borrowed from the man
and the man has always got to be repaid
for the deals of the borders and the fake IDs
and the stolen passports all locked away
While the women are working and gagging down on their knees
and somewhere in the back of terminal 3
in the clogged-up corridors of the immigration authorities
whole families with the wrong bits of paper
are waiting to be sent back to where they came from
escorted by officials out across the tarmac
with their wrist bound tight with cable ties behind their backs

It's dawn and there's fog in Rotterdam harbour
and the guard's on his break and the dogs are chained by the wire
three figures come out from behind the cranes
make across the train tracks
climb aboard a Panamanian freighter headed for the isle of grain
find a place to hide in a stack of containers
another payload of world trade because
goods are free to move but not people
oil is free to move but not people
jobs are free to move but not people
money is free to move but not people

And today they got a man hauled off a truck in the port of Calais
we watch him in silence as they lead him away
clutching his battered suitcase
but his face betrays him, lost and scared and defeated
sitting in the back of the white port authority van
well, where do any of us come from, it's pretty hard to say
while high in the sky above us tonight
the bombers are heading the other way, south and east
into the blood red crimson sunrise of another imperial day

by Justin Sullivan

http://youtu.be/tI5SztZPUgI

Refugee

My room is dark, and very small;
There's a place to wash at the end of the hall.
I hear strange languages through the wall,
I hear them shouting in the street below.
I listen now to anything, anything at all;
Just to keep the ghosts away, not to let them come.

Lusala, she was the first to hit the ground,
Running up the hill at the side of the house
One by one, in the screaming sun, my family fell,
The air alive with bullets, and the smell of fear.
Don't look back, don't look back, don't look back at all:
Their bloodied faces are here with me, now, in the room
Until the lights go out and the silence comes
Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, just keep on running;
Keep running, keep running, keep running, run, run, run...

by Justin Sullivan

http://youtu.be/EV3CyRfV4FM

My Country

Tell all the people who believe what they read in the press
Tell all the folk who stare from behind suburban walls
The enemy is not some nation far across the sea
The enemy is with us every single breathing day

So yes, I will fight for my country
The land that I love so well
Yes - for justice, a land fit for all our futures
Yes, I will fight for my country
The land that I love so well
Hear the voices of our history echo all around

Fight all the ones who divide us rich against poor
Fight all the ones who divide us white against black
Fight all the powers who want their missiles in our earth
Fight all the people who would lead us into war
No rights were ever given to us by the grace of God
No rights were ever given by some United Nations clause
No rights were ever given by some nice guy at the top
Our rights they were bought by all the blood
And all the tears of all our
Grandmothers, grandfathers before
For all the folk who gave their lives for us
For all the folk who spit out - never say die
For all the fires burning on our highest hills
For all the people spinning tales tonight
Fight all the powers who would abuse our Common Laws
Fight all the powers who think they only owe themselves...

So yes, I will fight for my country
The land that I love so well
Yes - for justice, a land fit for all our futures
Yes, I will fight for my country
The land that I love so well
Hear the voices of our history echo all around

by Justin Sullivan

http://youtu.be/yHQr718i6tk

See You In Hell

As we touched down on the tarmac, they strode out to greet us
It was under a blue snake-skin sky
With a handshake of welcome, they set their agenda
With their smiles never touching their eyes
We've been here before on the edge of a promise
Surrender is all that remains
But we'll see them in hell, we'll see them in hell
We'll see them in hell before then

You made me a coward - I can't stand what I've become
What I most of all regret is not what I did
But all the things that I left undone
Like nobody learns, and nothing is changed
You ask me to follow again
But I'll see you in hell, see you in hell
I'll see you in hell before then

by Justin Sullivan

http://youtu.be/EnB-khUYwC4

The World

The roll of distant thunder breaks, the afternoon of silence wakes
They hurry through from Petergate as if they know this dance
In fury blind, I drive at night across the moors, the open roads
Beneath the freezing starry skies, racing in some trance
These cities are illusions of some triumph over Nature's laws
We've seen the iron carcass rust and buildings topple into dust
And as the waters rise, it seems we cling to all the rootless things
The Christian lies, technology, while spirits scream and sing
Oh God I love the world

Well I never said I was a clever man but I know enough to understand
That the endless leaps and forward plans will someday have to cease
You blind yourselves with comfort lies like lightning never strikes you twice
And we laugh at your amazed surprise as the Ark begins to sink
This temple that is built so well to separate us from ourselves
Is a power grown beyond control, a will without a face
And watching from outside I wish that I could wash my hands of this
But we are locked together here, this bittersweet embrace
Oh God I love the world

And if one day the final fire explodes across the whitened sky
I know you've said you'd rather die and make it over fast
With courage from your bravest friends, waiting outside for the end
With no bitterness but an innocence that I can't seem to grasp
I know somehow I will survive - this fury just to stay alive
So drunk with sickness, weak with pain, I can walk the hills one last time
Scarred and smiling, dying slow, I'll scream to no one left at all
I told you so, I told you so, I told you so . .
Oh God I love the world

by Justin Sullivan

http://youtu.be/xnZD61tynS4