Are deeply held beliefs really red, white, and blue
Grown-ups babbled
as unsuspected anger trickled inch by inch, frayed
emotion whimpered toward an agreement
to be silent. Knowledge of expression dripped
like an exhausted candle. Lost freedom
found slumped outside the saloon doors,
a dangerous martyr stabbed
by right-handed, blue rinsed temperance. Ideals
laughed at loudly from the opposite platform. Tolerance,
brotherhood and union savaged
by the beast with fat brass knuckles.
The tides round the island turned
on the instructions of the megaphone
chief.
The water leaves
waves of arrogance, no longer
bubbling below the surface. Hate sunbaths happily
on bleached out yellow sand. Intolerance floats on the breeze
a tangle of slogans and lies. Hate,
injustice and greed on the savage vertical,
inequality and poverty left
like spilled sour cream.
Most barely glance at the spillage, instead
shout about the mess that is left.
Media repeats headlines
about the unpalatable
flavour, fails to report
the colour of the honest hands
trying to wipe the precarious ledge
clean.
Darren J Beaney is one half of Flight of the Dragonfly, who host a regular spoken word evening on Zoom and in a pub Brighton, they also produce FLIGHTS a quarterly poetry, prose and flash fiction e-journal and have just set up as a small publishing press. He has two pamphlets published by the Hedgehog Poetry Press - Honey Dew and The Machinery of Life. His new chapbook – The Fortune Teller’s Yarn (Destiny F*cks With Milo) was published by Alien Buddha Press in July 2022.
He lives with his family and their rescue cats and dog in East Preston, which is nestled on the West Sussex coast. Darren recommends the National Autistic Society.
