Better world

I do not care for flakes of gold

nor the flames of ash

my heart sits, set in stillness

as your words masquerade as dust

 

We sit and wait for the future

with time passing time

and fire passing fire

commandments become chains

dancing in the mirror mocking

the angel face flint like stone stands unamused

as ignorance is crowned

 

What is this world in which we drown?

 

A crevice of immortal hate sits and sings of prejudice beating, crushing humanity

the thorn has migrated to the soul and forgotten how to love

deafness brings noise reversing our screens to murmurs

as the demons of the mind break free

 

If we could drink this hate like oxygen

destruction would be easy

hands would join together in selfless sacrifice

but we are blind

 

We have become players who roll the dice and declare the object unequal

justifying fear in the wake of black eyeless shadows

we have become prisoners

we must turn on silence and let it follow us as we speak

running to revert this sunset, yellowed by sickness

 

It’s time to let the wingless butterfly breathe

you don’t always have to fly to make a change

suffering is a scar but it is not the end

and in this knowledge we must ascend, resuscitate

not in the name of conformity but for the minority

that spark that lives in all of us

 

We are more than rejected reflections

more than pawns in this chess game

we are Kings, Queens and everything in between

 

With patience comes understanding and in understanding there will be patience

as much as death gives life to the living there will be a chance, a new beginning,

a landscape on which to build a better world

We shall fall down strong

and see that we are not simply beings in time but in a time of being

the waves of our past reluctant ice

now melt the mirror

and though we may struggle against this tide

the hope of life’s jacket is true

and from this chaos we shall rise

© Kay Channon

Kay is a poet and PhD student at the University of Chichester. Earlier this
year her debut poetry collection The Dark Side of Light was published
by Bardic Media and is available through Amazon, Wordery or Blackwells.