First poem in a long time

Saw Chil­dren of Men last night. Quite intense. This (draft only) was the result.

Why we did nothing

Men are being tor­tured right now in Guantanamo Bay
Here on our island a whole class of people
Can now be detained without charge
Indefinitely
They will be the deses­par­ido, just like
A whole gen­er­a­tion of Brazilians.
In the name of demo­cracy and Christianity,
A whole cul­ture is demonised.
They hide tor­ture behind words like rendition.

While he is tortured,
We do noth­ing. Why?
Because the sun still shines
Because making love still feels good
Because he just called again and I miss him
Because I argued with my boss
Because that idiot just cut me off
Because the baby was crying
Because the chil­dren need their lunch
Because I’ll miss the train if I don’t hurry
Because read­ing a book is my escape
Because my new laptop will arrive
Because I was writ­ing some­thing down
In case I forgot, in case I remembered,
In case I had to call them back later
Because, too often, I feel lonely too
Because light needs the dark­ness too
Because it hadn’t to happen to someone
And I didn’t want it to be me
Because I was scared to say anything
Because it’s all too complicated
Because some­times I feel helpless
Because music makes me want to dance
Because that’s far away and I’m safe
Because it’s easy
Because it’s easy
Because it’s easy