Sep 102010
 

Day Trip – A Poem by Gerard Rochford

I think I’ll go to Banchory today:
check out the chanterelle, startle the deer,
admire the heathered slopes, see Bennachie.

A girl walks to a river in Eritrea,
gracefully, her vessel upon her head.

She steps on a mine and stares in disbelief
at her shattered legs. Now she lies dead
in a mess of shards and blood.

In Darfur some soldiers are raping a woman,
they leave her with wounds, a baby and HIV.

A Nigerian girl is stoned to death for love,
her villagers starve as rich men steal their oil.

Mugabe rants about struggles long since won,
democracy threatens Iraq at the point of a gun.

A suicide bomber kills himself in error,
the president kills to plan.

Britney enters re-hab once again.
The poppies flourish in Afghanistan.
Deeside is awash with the redness of autumn.

© Gerard Rochford.