Dear LPG,

There are so many beautiful things in this world and, if nothing else, I hope that being shut away from them for a significant while will have helped us to appreciate them a little more, but there are also the really negative aspects of our world which are often less likely to be the subjects of poetry.

This is a dark, sombre poem comparing life in pre-historic times with the outcomes of today’s wars of desolation and destruction.  Simple, everyday words aim to reveal today’s horrors. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.

It was those more negative thoughts which inspired my poem today…

START AND FINISH

It was a dry cave and dark.
We conquered the dark
Lighting a fire so we could
protect each other night and day.
We moved on in the dark, hid in the light,
finally settling into built apartments.

The finish recalled the start.
They burnt our apartments,
They murdered our sons, they raped
our beautiful wives and daughters.
We had marked the caves, just in case.
They were dry and dark, but
we were scared to light a fire.

Foster Murphy

In memory of ‘ordinary’ Afghans and the other genocide victims of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.