A Subtle Terrorist by John Sweet

this is the ship going down and
the captain drunk & singing

this is germany, 1942,
the ladies draped in fur and jewels or the
ones forced to eat their own children’s ashes

the kings who build their palaces
from the bones of the disappeared and
what if your choices are to be a
slave or a whore?

what if every poem is just an
act of violence turned inward?

and it’s not hope that i want from you
because we’ve come too far for that
and so we look at whatever’s left

we trust to the ideas that have
always failed us in the past

just keep laughing while the next
unspeakable atrocity steps out from
the shadows of all the ones that
came before

john sweet, b 1968, still numbered among the living. A believer in writing as catharsis. an optimistic pessimist. Opposed to all organized religion and political parties. Avoids zealots and social media whenever possible. His latest collections include BASTARD FAITH (2017 Scars Publications) and APPROXIMATE WILDERNESS (2016 Flutter Press). All pertinent facts about his life are buried somewhere in his writing. )