David & Goliath Junction | Mark Heathcote

It’s the old story of David and Goliath

Here we see two countries locking horns 
like schoolboys in the schoolyard,
as always a bully twice the size is
throwing sawdust in the eyes of the other,
and us observing bystanders stood around.

The smaller boy is on his blooded knees 
holding all the high moral ground 
takes his nosebleeds well and won’t concede 
it’s the old story of David and Goliath I fear
the bigger shouting I will win, I will domineer.

But we witnessing, see it’s a battle of attrition
who’ll fight the longer like a body combating cancer?
And in this battle, we’re all rooting for contrition,
contrition from the bigger slain by the littler 
to eventually become the rightful winner.

Consequences uttered to instil a sense of fear

Today we watch in horror 
the deliberate act of a Russian tank 
driving over a moving civilian car
and see the ruin remains of residential tower blocks
the homes of the innocent destroyed sent fleeing 
midwinter into the perilous unknown, 
we see people desperately clutching babies, children 
and teddy bears to their breast.
While Russia, with all its military arsenal of chess pieces 
encircles its prey, threatening the world with its 
shelling, closing in on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
like a cat, playing with a globe in its paw. 

And to this added-horror unfolding 
we are all told of crematorium death machines
how they roll on behind to dispose of their own dead
we are all told the War to "de-militarise and de-Nazify" 
that it’s an effort to stop any more future violence
but what’s clearly on display is genocide
an invasion of aggressors hell-bent on destruction 
on looting and murder, they claim hysteria
has taken hold of our senses and shortly
we in the West will all come to our senses—again. 

We once a trusting partner, will settle down
and later calmly renegotiate a mutual endgame 
that settles for King’s stalemate, an equal partnership 
because if you don’t, there’ll be 
consequences greater than any you’ve faced 
in the history of the world.
Because why do we need a world if Russia is not in it?
So Putin once again has announced he wants 
Russia’s nuclear deterrence forces placed on “high alert,”
and orders the West not to interfere,
again “Consequences” uttered to instil a sense of fear.

It’s a perilous junction even for us distant boy scouts

There are two dog owners on either side of the road
at a crossing, any minute, a landmine might explode
it is more than likely a standoff, a bad mixture
one is with a black and tan Miniature Pinscher
the other is with three snarling borzoi hounds
it’s a perilous junction even for us distant boy scouts
there look to be some cordial words spoken at first
but leashes are loosened, and threats are interspersed
there’s a greeting of canine teeth bared to kill
locked in a bloodlust that crushes all the daffodils
that spills innocent blood on the freshly falling snow
these wild dogs are now unchained and let go.
Their owners are at distant ends of the earth. 
Their howling, their baying, their wailing never adjourns
there’s no end to war when war crimes are waged 
and an entire world and people are enraged.

Putin has ‘gone full tonto’

Defence minister Ben Wallace says Putin has 'gone full tonto.'
So saddle up your 'wild horse's folks,'
and get out of your lunatic asylum beds
he’s mental folks now, that’s-what-I've read.

Putin has-gone-full tonto they say
there is no neutrality in this nuts psychiatric unit.

He's said to have lost it during his covid-19 isolation lockdown, 
they say he’s been sharpening knives for a good while now

and even wants to microwave the world for his Sunday roast?

Putin has 'gone full tonto' they say,
saving comrades and neighbours from Neo-Nazism
all his clowns and jesters are clueless about what the hell to do 
so they wave flags and fire bullets and generally join in his parade.
Announcing corridors are opening to the poor folk they're killing.
 
Putin has 'gone full tonto' they say,
and who can disagree when a baby boy dies of shrapnel wounds
died in his mother's arms on International Women's Day
and all he and they can say is war has its casualties 
maybe they shouldn’t have got in our way.

Mark Heathcote…

…is an adult learning difficulties support worker with 200-plus poems published in journals, magazines, and anthologies both online and in print. He resides in the UK, from Manchester. Mark is the author of In Perpetuity and Back on Earth, two books of poems published by Creative Talents Unleashed.

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