April Fools’ Day
Printer rollers turning… satellite waves transmitting… communication cables buzzing.
A deployment of information on ‘The War Against Terrorism’.
A media frenetic in its action, but subdued in its tone:
More active than the movement of an army of ants,
Yet as a calm, dull grey, overhanging cloud.
The day of tricks reveals the claim to be true
And once again the toll rises – by one.
As the timekeeper announces almost a decade,
The cost becomes an expensive one
At two hundred and seventy-nine.
When will the ink run dry,
Or will it replenish itself for an eternity?
Click… click… click.
A continual and monotonal dualism:
A giver of time,
Like the death-watch beetle’s perfectly tuned song;
And a taker of time,
Like hailstones raining violently down on a sheet of metal.
A feminised military, or masculine females?
Either way, no discrimination in modern warfare
For the delicate sex is also commemorated.
An unknown public experiences heightened feelings and emotions
As twenty-first century technology and reality
Supply lifelikenesses of our heroes and heroines.
A reunion of separation:
Wooton Basset, where the shells are honoured by humankind
And the heavens, where the souls are glorified by angels.
Respect and support for the tools, yet abhorrence for the act.
An unrealistic, unpopular and unremitting war:
Lacking the understanding, the support and the sense to say ‘enough is enough’.
A tug of war between an undeniable master
And an unbeatable enemy –
Two-legged demons, devilish paths and damnable masses of energy –
A tug of war where the rope is entwined with many strands of servants who are loyal to their country.
No April fools among our brave,
But gallant soldiers on a fools’ errand.
