Venice masks

Thursday, 16 April 2026

I Greet You - Jan Greshoff

I greet you, neighbor, comrade,
I greet you, hurdy-gurdy man, soldier,
Deliverer, farmer and beggar!
I greet you, blind fiddler!

Wednesday, 15 April 2026

Sevenfold (A Lamentation) - Ber Kotlerman

Tear your eyes away from the grey news stream
Sit on the floor and weep, and moan, and keen
At the sheer horror, obscene.

Tuesday, 14 April 2026

Occupation 1943 - Saadi Youssef

We boys, the neighborhood’s barefoot
We boys, the neighborhood’s naked
We boys of stomachs bloated from eating mud
We boys of teeth porous from eating dates and pumpkin rind

Monday, 13 April 2026

I Explain a Few Things - Pablo Neruda

Traitorous
generals:
look at my dead house
look at shattered Spain

Sunday, 12 April 2026

Passiondale - Rob Esdaile

The ancient emblems of Christ’s death
have become now strangely shrunk.
The forest whence the cross was hewn is no more:
a treeless, birdless, muddy waste stands in its place;

Saturday, 11 April 2026

Air Raid - Chinua Achebe

It comes so quickly
the bird of death
from evil forests of Soviet technology

Friday, 10 April 2026

The wrong rain - Jennifer Vishagan

I feel a longing, to feel 
the hug-worthy summer again.
Sleeping under a blanket of smoky fog 
that vows to weigh worse
as the winter sways in slow and ruthless.

Thursday, 9 April 2026

Wednesday, 8 April 2026

To war mongers everywhere - Susan Nalugwa Kiguli

Tell us
Did you start a war
So our women
Could be sold to public shame?

Tuesday, 7 April 2026

The Hangman - Maurice Ogden

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame on the courthouse square.