NEW POEM: Remember Pisky

The world feels slightly terrifying at the moment. The posturing around the world, with the real potential of war (and war at its worst) has made me realise how quickly we forget the past and how we refuse to learn lessons from those memories while they are still clear. It is this internalised muddle of emotions that have informed my latest piece, "Remember Pisky".

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Remember Pisky

A Poem by Simon Clark

As you line up at the border,

Remember Pisky,

As you stand there with your guns,

Remember Pisky,

As you rage and rail like the Devil himself,

Remember Pisky,

As your tanks roll ever closer,

Remember Pisky,

As your grenades feel ever hotter,

Remember Pisky,

As your faith vanishes behind Satan’s stain,

Remember Pisky.

Pisky?

Evaporated and eviscerated,

Turned into a ghost town where people no longer breathe without a tear tracing its tale down their face,

The buildings tumbled, crumbled,

The clothing left behind leaves us humbled,

The sins of man are greater than any God could foresee,

Still the few remaining are bent down, knelt down, praying for a reprieve.

And still you line up at the border,

And still you stand there with you guns,

And still you rage and rail like the Devil himself,

And still your tanks roll ever closer,

And still your grenades feel ever hotter,

And still your faith vanishes behind Satan’s stain.

Don’t you remember the agony? Can’t you recall the pain?

Remember Pisky for the little girl’s red shoes left by where her bed once stood,

Where now the ground is dry and cracked and blemished with the innocent blood,

Remember Pisky for the homes that once stood proud but now have been destroyed,

Where every single controlled man has been picked up, packed up and deployed,

Remember Pisky for the tears you shed from the warmth of your hot-heated home,

While all around the shattered town are fragments, clues of the lives whose souls have flown,

Remember Pisky for the family whose livelihood was ruined in one single blast,

Remember Pisky for the dreams, hopes and wishes that they knew could never last,

Remember Pisky for the scar on humanity it has become,

Remember Pisky as you ignore the war about to come.

As you line up at the border,

As you stand there with your guns,

As your rage and rail like the Devil himself,

As your tanks roll ever closer,

As your grenades feel ever hotter,

As your faith vanishes behind Satan’s eyes…Remember Pisky.

Visit the graves…when it’s safe.

© Simon Clark 2022