Christmas in Palestine

Christmas in Palestine

Death is floating in the air

Like tinsel streaming from above

Missiles are heading out your way

Bringing evil and hate not love

There is no Christmas dinner on a plate

Only starvation with food stopped at the border

Children slowly dying as others celebrate

This is called a western new world order

Bombs are falling from the skies

There is no nocturnal star of hope

Others feast whilst the child dies

Suffocated by the western yoke

Any thread of hope is quickly seized

The desert shall be your bed tonight

Only one voice will be believed

The horror of your world kept from sight

Your tents are burned the manger too

The innkeeper stands guard with a gun

Saying this world has no place for you

Shepherds with their flock hit by a bomb

Wise men sit down and pontificate

Passing resolutions in your favour

Their words are flooded out by hate

That’s Christmas with a western flavour

Copyright: David Hopcroft December 2024

The Soap Opera of War

The Soap Opera of War

The image had been formed over a hundred years ago

A Wild West of guns and bullets with lead flying everywhere

Just how much was true I’m not sure we’ll ever know

The movies glamourised the scene now we don’t care

Then a couple of World Wars added more material

Cameras were rolling as war planes filled the skies

Appealing to a part of the brain that is vestigial

An area that gets excited each time someone dies

Great movies were made but then came television

A chance to bring the deadly screen into your home

The horrors of reality subjected to inhibition

Now the slaughter is available on your mobile phone

Eventually the brain was numbed and people wanted more

The days of make-believe gave way to reality

The people were tired of shows they needed a real war

Their thirst met by the leaders who craved depravity

Businesses were booming with sales of missiles and tanks

There is nothing like a war to boost the economy

In mansions on private islands rich men give thanks

Whilst leaders incite hatred in every young wanna be

Actors and actresses no longer dominate the screen

Now flak-jacketed tin-hat reporters are the stars

Competing for ratings with the terrifying gruesome scene

And all that we are left with are the corpses and the scars

Copyright: David Hopcroft October 2024

On the edge: Are you insane?

On the edge: Are you insane

This land is ours they cried

As they came with fire in the night

To burn the village to the ground

It’s ours the fleeing families said

Leaving the elderly

Already shot dead

By snipers as an army watched

Then reported they could see nothing amiss

Get off our land they cried

Sending their rockets in the air

Aimed at the homes

Of those they deemed responsible

For the bombing of their children

As if the killing of others

Would bring back their own

And all would then be well

Aim for the hospitals came the cry

Aim for the schools

Aim for the mosques

Aim for the churches

Destroy their homes

Burn them to the ground

‘Love Thy Neighbour?’

‘Hell no. Let them die’

Cheering from the sidelines

Were those who supplied the bombs

Why can’t you just live side by side

I asked as I tried to intervene

But my efforts were in vain

Back came the shrieking from one and all

“Side by side” they screamed

“Are you insane?”

Copyright: David Hopcroft October 2024

If we are frightened to protest then what hope is there for humanity?

Who buries the corpses

Who buries the corpses?

There was little warning before the missiles came

Raining down upon the street where children played

Each side adamant that the other was to blame

The buildings collapsed upon those who prayed

Upon the dusty street the limbs were strewn

Left as those still alive sought shelter in desperation

Amongst the rubble on a dusty afternoon

A pack of stray dogs feed upon a lost generation

The jeep prowled the avenues in the town

Rifles at the ready the riders opened fire

Women with their young ones swiftly mown down

Medals for those submitting to a leader’s desire

Who dares to step into the road to retrieve

Becomes the prey of the predator in uniform

In a ruined church a priest begs those to believe

Defending some ancient deity with cruciform

The victor celebrates by denial of water and bread

Flesh still clings to the bones of the starving child

The general declares the world now free of dread

With a hand upon the book he has defiled

I watch the horrors unfold upon the screen

I listen to the evil of those who claim a right of deity

And ask myself about all that I have seen

How can we say this is in the name of humanity

Copyright: David Hopcroft October 2024