Grenfell

Words seem futile
scrawled hopelessly across this page
to be read in low light
in the shadow of that tower
cast long over us.

Standing tall still
blackened and desolate
the graves of the uncounted
a mocking monument
to human inadequacy.

I cannot begin to imagine,
or to contemplate that horror
and yet, when I close my eyes,
I can see it, I can hear them.
My mind poisoned,
by a sight I wish I’d never seen
but one that I know, now
must never be forgotten.

Those people.
Those lives.
Must be brought to mind
and be often on our lips
that we may never forget
or be allowed to believe
that anyone
is anything less,
than human.

SMJC+
(Written: 28.VI.17)