We are statues

We are statues

Gazing out to sea

Standing waist-deep

Waterlogged

Unconnected to the future

Welded in time

Commemorating failure

To progress

Brass plaques on a wall

Names without faces

We are the dead

Planted in soft soil

Trampled underfoot

Broken by degree

Dragged down

By the ghost of history

The lack of a plan

To make amends

We are the lost

Unknown stories

Written in blood

Buried in cobwebs

Forgotten by time

Remembered as cyphers

In subtext.

As narratives change

Inconvenient truths

Become a hindrance

To progress

When the winners

Hold all the cards.

We are soft toys

Woolly Mammoths

Empty threats

Easy targets

Ordinary people

With nothing to give

But the sweat from our brows

The blood in our veins.