This chaos
We live, perhaps, in a lawless world,
rejoicing as it does in the wild swings
of good against bad, confounded
by questions of maplines
and economics
and the democratic process,
informed by gods,
the tensile strength of duplicitous reason,
by spatters of blood.
And yet, in all this vital disorder,
this human-threatening human flux,
I can’t quite flap the feeling out of my hapless sickened bones,
that there is a truth
that mocks this chaos with its constancy,
even as it underwrites more chaos still.
For it seems to me, that
ours is a civilisation built on war,
and a civilisation built on war
is no such thing.
Charlie Hill is a writer from Birmingham. Both of his novels have been critically acclaimed. His short stories have appeared in many publications in print and online. Website:
http://www.charliehill.org.uk/