Of Lead Pellets and Iron Oxide Particles in the Autumn

Chilly morning, old coffee warmed

in the microwave, tired as

usual, a rusty leaf thrown to the ground

from its heights. The cloud

mass without features, milky white,

the coffee tastes bad, hot liquid

traveling down the throat

I think about the millions of magnetite

particles in our brains, how

we came to this, our brains

like Kashmiri faces after protests,

scarred, changing what and

who we are, our industrial civilization

living in us in our

post-industrial existence, 

like those eyeless children of

Kashmir and their comrades in

Palestine. The outside world

is blind, now the prisoner

like a ruler of old is blinded

to make the usurper safe.

A leaf, on the ground, yellow

beside brown. My feet are

now always cold, in this

world ruled by people

with hearts as cold as those

dug from chests on morgues.

Lead and iron.

07.09.2016