nothing more than saltwater

nothing more than saltwater

 

at school

i was told, with cudgel control

by those claiming to educate

all the things

that make britain great:

 

a common-wealth

that was anything but –

victorian museums

and regal squatters

twinkling to the gills

with plunder –  

still not returned

 

an empire

snatched by boats and bullets and bombs

ill-gotten gains and christian chains

the great white might

scorched into successive

generations enslaved

 

the violation of spirit

the shaming of tradition

the blanket slaughter

of indigenous people

in every single place on earth

 

a thousand years and more

of the scorn, torment

torture and rape

of women of every age

at the hands of men

through every age

 

when the oceans fall –

finally broiled to evaporation

by our greed for pointless technology

and bigger cars

when the last two dead fish

list in a sickly broth

of condoms, plastic bottles

and wet wipes

 

the maiden, the mother and the crone

will mourn

what should always have been known

 

that beneath the sea

every one of us, shares the same lump of rock

the same history

 

these borders

so tightly fought

nothing more than saltwater