it is easy to meet them.
People who send a shiver
Down your fragile spine
When tender eyes meet
The eyes of Cruel

Cruel sits opposite you
Just another normal man
Cruel shops where you shop
He gets off at your stop
He’s the fear that eats
Through the façade of safety

Then Cruel meets my eyes
Where you shiver, I smile
And Cruel does not know
What does he do,
How does he react

When Cruel meets Malice
she traps him, cunning eyes

Cruel gets off one stop early
Cruel stops shopping at 6.30
Where Cruel would once walk
Freely he now runs
Through darkness and Pain

You smile kind eyes,
she saved you and then
Malice turns to you: eyes deep and cold
Malice smiles and watches
as you realise what you fear

Is not the cruelty but the cold.

I speak from within.

Silenced with disapproving eyes

Pinot Noir blood black swirls 

I whisper words that cannot be said

Reproachful tones dampen my will. 

Sip a dash watching over my glass

I say now not what I mean

Smiles reach my hollowed face

Uproar as cutlery clinks into roast

I smile but not for pleasure.

Their words dance around a white aura

Sweet potato lies with bitter gravy

I slip my halo on for display.

With an experts song they speak of right and wrong

Our glasses refilled our minds race away

I sit in silence, nod and quietly disagree.

They wish not to hear my hated way. 

Watching from side, across the table

I work around simple questions with complex answers

Less I taint their pure white wings

Nauseating glee.

I speak as if to a young child

With such a terrible thought.

Tip my red Noir dangerously far

I lie to the theme of my disguise

Slip potions in their drink.

Cheese board brilliance, stink.

I pull an invisible string of words, marionettes. 

Let they not see me

With judgmental eyes

Missiles fly across the oceans
Threatening lives and many notions
‘Never again’ was once spoken
All too soon to be broken

Harsh battles that have come
Counting the graves and then some
So many lie beneath the dirt
All that’s left is ashes and hurt

These are not to be called world wars
With all the peace agreements and laws
Ukraine is the name of today
Just like Berlin in the black and white replay

Watching history in one hundred years

Sit baffled by all these emms and errs

From politicians now unknown

When we look back alone

We will call this, the third world war. 

*Authors Note: In the original version I wrote almost 20 years ago I used "Baghdad"  where Ukraine now is. I could also have used Israel, right now... or Iran... Or Yemen...