GORDON SCAPENS

Counting Nightmares

He sends men off to war

where he would not go,

marching towards horizons

they cannot see,

and they have no songs,

words dying like flowers,

buried behind the face

of an unknown clock.

There is no time to waste

only time to lose,

and man-made trouble

stares in all our faces,

writing the small print

at the bottom of plans

for forceful policies

perpetrated as peace missions.

This is an uneasy world.

Living is watching peace

walking off the page

and being unable to follow.

War is never over,

man has its measure.

They count soldiers going out,

count nightmares coming back.

This war slays little dragons

while the big one waits.

Gordon Scapens. Widely published in various countries over many years in numerous magazines, journals, anthologies, newspapers and competitions, most recently first prize in the Brian Nisbet poetry award. His latest book is History Doesn’t Die.

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