When this is over
We will build a citadel
Its name is Justice
copyright Francis Barker 2020
Haiku: Citadel to Justice
Tag: justice
Poem ‘October’
October comes and suddenly
there’s too much change.
Enough already with trees going bare,
without having to alter clocks
to appease the North
which might not even care.
While some see beauty in decay,
all I find is a reckoning, revenge
in Hallowe’en’s red-eyed stare,
where we fare no better than pigs
fattened and slaughtered,
sentenced for nothing
by callous clowns in wigs.
So I will kick through the leaves,
as is the custom
in my search for a soul,
or a silver-lining in death,
wrapped up like a sausage
against the first icy blast
which blows away all joy
and steals the breath.
© copyright David F. Barker 2012
*First published in poetry collection ‘Anonymous Lines’, Night Publishing, available at amazon.
Flesh of the Gods
“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” Matthew 13:12
His wish was for eternity, flesh
of the sun to mask his corruption; yet
he got his wish the instant Carter’s
torch shone through that chiseled hole: An afterlife
lived only through posterity, outshining
his ignominious end, all
made possible by legions of lackeys who worked
and then died.
Fast forward the centuries
and see little has changed, though
the flesh of the gods
is in bars, hidden in vaults underground, never
seen— like the hopes and dreams of peace,
these rigged scales of elusive justice. We are
left to scrap and save what we can
in a manufactured, finite
world, this theatre underfoot
none like us shall inherit. There is, after all,
only one sun in the sky
and Osiris lies in pieces, unable
to be mended again
© copyright Davidi F. Barker 2012
Poem ‘Fugitive’
fugitive
for so long you said nothing,
you let it all well-up inside.
It swelled like some geyser beneath you,
or some vast unstoppable tide
but clearly the choice was yours;
to sit quietly and safe in silence,
or face the dangers of disclosure.
what use was there in pretence?
so you told those cowards straight,
to carry on with ignominious lies,
because you knew the whole truth –
heck, you saw it with your own eyes!
so now you ride trains in the night,
mingle quietly in busy queues;
the world doesn’t want to see you
nor cares of the state of your shoes
and then one day, maybe quite soon,
you’ll vanish with barely a trace;
at least you knew your rabid enemy
defined the justice of your case
© copyright David F. Barker 2012
Poem ‘Haiku 2012 #3’
Haiku 2012 #3
regardless of time
justice awaits its hero
spring will always come
© copyright dfbarker 2012
*image digitally created © copyright dfbarker 2012
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