Poetry

Horst Faas/AP

By

Paul Summers

Flowers of Evil

grey dusk congealed

& gentleness in hiding.

through trembling veils

the truth will mourn itself.

all evil exists in the detail

of its sanction. all hatred

borne of avarice & fear

erupts in blooms quotidian

& sublime. our clamour

for freedom making slaves

of us all. & ask the quiet dead

where terror makes its lair:

in bud dajo, in dresden’s flames,

within the breath of my lai’s

cordite smog, in hiroshima’s

melted time, in beit hanoun,

in badajoz & hama or jallianwala

bagh, fort pillow or saltville,

at wounded knee, on the road

to rumaila paved with ill-intent.

a litany replete were ink as free

as idling speech purports to be.

i.m. ibrahim dawawsa

only the minutes

only their distance

to separate survivors

from the dead

a courtyard strewn

with shrapnel petals

a skin of pale dust

as mute as snow

her losses expounded

in each bloody archipelago

only the minutes

only their distance

to demarcate

our hemispheres

to fashion the schism

between hatred & guilt

to furnish these clouds

with absolute burden

their weight aligning

in perfect storms

Paul Summers

Paul Summers was born in Blyth, Northumberland, in 1967. After a five year stint in Australia he has recently returned to his native north east England. His poems have appeared widely in print since the late Eighties and he has performed all over the world. He was founding co-editor of the ‘leftfield’ British magazines Billy Liar and Liar Republic and a co-director of Liar Inc Ltd, responsible for facilitating countless creative community and educational projects across the North of England and beyond. He has also written for TV, film, radio and theatre and has collaborated many times with other artists and musicians on mixed-media projects and public art.