Just fingerprints on the handrail of my memories
The world I knew has lost its smell, it’s shape
Uneasy silences, conspiracies have obscured
It’s a landscape I knew but the grey mist rolled in
The old friend got rabies, turned its claws on me
I’m peaceful, contented, wanting nothing
Then from the mist, the eyes of yellow do peer
My serenity’s burst in a question so small
“Your pass, please sir?” the kind girl asks
My stomach is lit, a fire from nowhere
My brain is stilled. Stunned. Orientation fogged
I have not erred or sinned or done wrong
And that, my friend, is the wire I’m hung
Nothing’s my crime. Doing nothing, I’m damned
Innocent as a fly, ostracised for stillness
The crimeless crime of living in peace
But my neighbour’s terror, he wants on me
Ready to snitch, report, see me flogged
For the whimsy of foreign corporate hunger
For greed, oh greed – greed of cash, greed of slaves
For that we kill our children, businesses and spirit
For a distant stranger’s dream, we stand naked and obedient
In a world that fears a ghost; and won’t light the room
How, my friend, did it happen so quickly, so insanely?
I have no answers ...