Nick Alldridge – poetry

BLACK RUSSIA

Nick Alldridge

POEMS

Russia bleeds her black oil blood Running through her pipelines Laden on her tankers In the bellies of her tanks. She breaths in her own gas As though it was air on fire With her glorious pride And all that comes after:

Pride in conquest leads to defeat, Pride in victory leads to despair, Pride in greed leads to suffering, And the pride of a bully leads to his fall.

Russia is capitalism gone mad It is Gazprom and Rosneft Unfettered and unchecked. Corporate greed controls the state Uncaring, unfeeling, less human than hate.

She lies and dissembles to any who will listen. Pity the humans caught in her webs As Mother Russia eats her children We look on in disbelief. And her neighbours suffer more Than words can relate.

VLAD

Two motes of darkness meet your gaze. A man who lives and breathes control unafraid of power plays and desperate measures can still, and always will, manifest his own downfall but not before he rips the world apart, thrashing against his own inevitable fate. His cancer spreading to the edges, collapsing to the centre, before another’s fingertips pull down the lids to separate his darkness from this Earth.

LOST THINGS

Things. So many things. Only things. Suddenly gone things. Snatched away things. Destroyed things. Burnt things. Remembered things. Things holding memories. Things holding dreams. So many things. Only things. Home things. Homes are things. Lost things. Burnt things. A Bromley house fire. A city in Ukraine. Accident or negligence or a deliberate act. Things. So many things. Not only things. Fire fighters, warnings, or none of that. And not just things, much more than that. But also things. Remember that.