Keeping The Shadow

Keeping the shadow

In private they would boast freely of their deeds

Those that in public they were careful to deny

Pretending that they never even knew each other

For they had crossed forbidden lines in the past

Knowing that revelations could result in jail

Their confidence lay in the power they could wield

A cosy club where each the others would shield

Their power lay in their wealth and corruption

How easy it was to pay others to lie and deny

Satisfied that club members would never confess

To the evil crimes of which they were accused

Occasionally the shield they had was threatened

A victim had made accusations of their abuse

They were easily denied but just to be sure

Her character was destroyed and even more

Dismantled further by the media they controlled

Until her spirit was broken by abuse and threat

The rich men’s club was able to continue on

Recruiting new victims even those under age

Providing some pleasure for perverted minds

They were an elite sharing a dirty secret

Sworn to protect each other at any cost

What if the victims in their hundreds

Were to work together to lift the shadow

Bringing all their behaviour to light

The evil that had been protected for so long

Might crumble if we show victims we are strong

For the evil relies upon our silence too

That our effort to support will wither and die

Our marches will dwindle in number

Unless we heed the need for a rallying cry

Justice and protection for shattered lives

An ending to the power of corruption and lies

Copyright: David Hopcroft November 2025

The Hypocrisy of Redaction

The Hypocrisy of Redaction

Somewhere there may be a list of clients

With lists of those recruited to service their desires

Somewhere there may be preserved accounts

To show who paid who for what and when

The demands for these will persist

Since it is unlikely that they don’t exist

But if truth like the cobra were to raise its head

Striking with poison memories some wish to shed

Then those who once shouted must seek to suppress

For the victims then there will be no redress

The perpetrators protected never likely to confess

The architect of such disgrace

No longer able to show his face

So many secrets rest in his grave

His absence part of some reckoning

Lest truth in its entirety came beckoning

Such was the relief of the abusers

Now sheltered by the shield of hypocrisy

The names of the abused to remain hidden

Leaving them to continue to live in fear

When the reality is that for future protection

All must be unlocked to end subjection

Can what is concealed ever be revealed

The release of documents once called fake

The opening of files we were told did not exist

So much never existed and was all a mistake

The story altered once again in another retake

Protected as the narrative is re-enacted

With the black pen that says redacted

Who will be the judges of what to hide

Could it be the very perpetrators that decide

If such men are also able to control the news

They will continue in their thirst to abuse

Copyright: David Hopcroft November 2025

On mortals and deities

On mortals and deities

In a world of gods and goddesses mortals are but pawns

Playing out the games of others through mortal lives

They are toys of fantasy and mystery where legend spawns

A world where lustful gods deceive their wives

With deeds to desecrate virginity innocence is destroyed

Yet for some the same become the heroes down the years

Stories of such trickery and mischief to be enjoyed

Fading into the background are those left in tears

The anthropoid so often shape-shifted into birds and stars

Placed high in the heavens and encapsulated in time

The magic and the deception glossing over the scars

Where mortal lives exist for the pleasures of the divine

Yet when such exploits and deeds come to be believed

Then what if mortals come to see themselves as deities

Then are other mortals as worshippers perceived

Whilst false gods and goddesses pretend to be realities

As vassals to their oaths we may then be bound

Whilst such false deities act out their legendary deeds

But hope will not be denied or vanish underground

From today’s protest will be born freedom’s seeds

I ask then how false deities are to be held to account

Unless their frailties are both challenged and exposed

Their cruelty and falsehoods have no monetary amount

Yet surely justice demands an ending to be imposed

Copyright: David Hopcroft January 2025