The shutters come up
And as the light pierces the recesses of the porch
A figure shuffles past the guard
“Pint of John Smiths.”
The barman smiles cheerfully at me:
“Enjoy your breakfast, sir.”
The fruit machine nearby is on silent mode
As I absorb the magazine in front of me
Promising a new order, fresh innovation and a world of free informational transfer in a virtual setting;
The old men are 2 pints on.
The last piece of toast with the new Digital City
The fruit machine pays the wide-eyed tired guy his morning winnings.
He moves to the next machine
Past the pints of dark nestled in craggy hands.
I’m ready to face the day in industrial dereliction
To change the world from the formal, classical way.
A vodka bottle lies smashed on the ground outside.
This is art gallery space. People pay to look at this.
And the wheel turns And darkness threatens once more And the blowhards send the brave And the brave kill the brave And turn on the objectors And the wheels turn in the mire of lost hope And the brave lose their hope while the blowhards hope they win And we all lose as the wheel turns And the brave come home in pieces, in boxes or in tears And the darkness is pushed back once more And we say we will remember, while the memory is still fresh And the wounds are fresh And the wheel turns ever on And the flowers bloom and the silence is noted And we say that we will never forget And the wheel turns again And the blowhards are pumped with greed And the brave are fatted on tales of glory And the wheel turns David Ault - Ripon Poetry Festival Winner, 2018
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