thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube
  • Home
  • Home
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

Nick Allen

on the murder of Renee Good and matters relating

Oh America, where are your blessed checks and balances now,
who is upholding the separation of legislature, judiciary and the executive.
On Martin Luther King Day is anyone prepared to speak truth to power,
will they name things as they are, tell the emperor about his new clothes.

When will you stop this gaslighting America, we all saw the tape,
the men who shot the mother had ICE in their hearts, a murder
is a murder, is a murder after all. Telling people not to believe
the evidence of their own eyes does not change the evidence.

America, do you believe in the Law of Power now, rather than the Power
of the Law. Pity the nation indeed who believe that having bigger guns,
bestows an inalienable right to use them with impunity. A bully is a bully,

for all that. We understand the international order, rule of law, kidnapping
and piracy. We have witnessed war crimes and genocide. And we know
extortion when we see it. You once fought a war to be rid of a mad king.

Nick Allen is a poet and Trade Union activist based in West Yorkshire. He has one collection and four pamphlets to his name, one of which, between two rivers (Maytree Press, 2019) was the result of a collaboration with artist Myles Linley. His poems have appeared in many magazines including Stand, The North, The Interpreter’s House, and anthologies, the most recent of which have been The Fig Tree Coal Mining Anthology: a response to the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike, edited by Tim Fellows; We’re All In It Together: Poems for a DisUnited Kingdom, edited by Steve Ely, Kayleigh Campbell and Michael Stewart; and No Net Ensnares Me, a response to the work of the Brontë sisters and the landscape associated with them, edited by Ian Humphreys. His publications can be purchased here: pauladunnartist.com/pages/publications

Subscribe

Copyright © 2025  The Militant Thistles - Powered by GFD

Home
My account
More
More
  • Home