Hippocratic Oath
"Let food be thy medicine And medicine be thy food" Seems like a reasonable description When the written prescription By specialist in land afar Rings with a millennia old truth The treatment is food
They are disabled They say That's how they should look They say Skin and bone stretched Organ protrusion From depths that should remain unseen Eyes as orbs searching hollowed When the last thing swallowed was air Lungs burning Shallow From chemical dust And smoke from rubble And bellies bulge As self consumption Becomes the presumption Of guilt
They are disabled They say That's normal As though neglect was not the cause Of malnourished mouths of mothers Bearing babies with no arms
They are disabled They say As though tiny graves Don't dot the land Under broken stone And the remnants of homes Where they could not escape their fate From inaccessible battlefield state Where medicine is worth its weight in gold If ever hold
They are disabled They say That's expected As though snipers nest Didn't crack the cartilage in jest In knee in hip in chest With intentional revision To kill and maim the rest And dedicated missions To test new weaponry
How does a child hold responsibility For the actions of the aggressor? Generational hypocrisy And inherited splendour Of prison In open air This child can't yet walk Nor speak nor vote in treaties That remove their humanity For favour of few Who set to gain In stocks and bonds Who stalk and bind The children, women, men In open air Raped and maimed And starved of care A laboratory a hell With dried and poisoned wells A farm of organs and of sorrow In open air
Air hunger And hungry heirs Who feed on dying gasps Rattling To hide the dying gasps Of state born imperial Colonial cascade As it crumbles And fumbling with double speak The cruelty set upon its pique And peaking interest Spikes like shrapnel Dusted with the memories Of centuries of struggle And millennia of rubble Only recent set to crumble By the weight of belly rumble And tower tumble And blast from on high Reaching to sky To scream to earth Faster than a gasp A tonnage teeming TNT And wave of shock Pierces screens And bodies miles away That suffocate Under the weight of Global leader fumble In weakest hesitation The fascination with Ammunition and arbitration Of amputation Of reality And babies bones Without anesthesia's tones Like a lullaby To soften the bite of apathetic Psychopathic savour The cowardice of flavour In stark contrast to labour Of love by citizens Scattered like seeds Upon fertile ground of truth The proof was proven In the omissions And contradictions Uncouth The gaslit tomb Of weeping wound Weaponized By those removed From empathy that Guarded tender By ancestors Who did not surrender To death by chance Under lock and key Abused behind a fence Guarded then set free Who still survive and cry Never again Pleading desperately to Descendants and strangers To kin, who stoked By empire whim Corrupted Fall in line And refuse to see the pattern
Empathetic death Intention and tone Flagellates the fragile And throttles phallic In the grip of blackout Flames lick fracture Feast upon the scenery And ancient grove Bodies and tomes To erase and take The land and wealth From the remnants Of a culture's health Siphoned stolen
Industrial complexes Complicate the simple Imperial collapses Desecrate the symbols Of persistence And resistance How can a tree a fruit an herb A bird a pattern and a song Be such a threat to power When heirloom stories Woven in recipes and sacred dreams And keffiyeh and family trees Threaten false realities Chosen to hold hope And are troped as vulgar By the oppressor To hide the memory of shame To obscure who is to blame To muddy waters Unfit to quench the thirst Of the first generation of babes Livestreamed while they are maimed And sniped from afar Or shredded in car Who rarely have a chance to scar Before death follows
"Let food be thy medicine And medicine be thy food" When cornucopia of fruit Pours into landfills Instead of hungry mouths The cowardice of flavour In stark contrast to labour Of love by citizens Scattered like seeds Upon fertile ground of truth Seek proof of life Of empathy and take to sea And street and screen To share their wealth And break of barricade To bring down apathy's reign
Those seeds will sprout There is no doubt The planets have aligned There is no room For cruelty's loom To weave false truth this time The silence speaks The proof and seam Unravels swift the binds That held apart From empathy that now Echoes in hearts and minds
I don't have much But have your share Of nourishment and care I've ate my fill So please have yours I was given more than fair We'll sow our seeds Of empathy And treat each other's wounds And grow and feast And nurture needs Weave together on the loom A song of truth A hope renewed Let it echo through the streets Melodic tune Ecliptic swoon From the river to the sea
Nikon D3500, 55-200mm Lens. 2025.
Photoshop for resizing.
