We grazed on strawberries,

We grazed on strawberries,

Filled our baskets

With blackberries,

Stomachs swollen

The suffering came later

Crawling like insects

Among the rows

In a nursery field,

Along the hedge

By the side of the road.

Laughing like drains

Overhead we saw planes

Which was still a worry

For the loss of all there was

Lay just across the water.

People like us

Collecting fruit in punnets

Wiping blue juice

From soft pink faces

Little things

Bombed into amputation

Lost in the grapevine.

A vintage crop

Spreadeagled

Lacking direction

Crawling in circles

Arms shouldered

Beneath the apple trees.

Rotten to the core

Is what they were

Not the same as us

And yet

Just across the water

On the other side of the street

A stone’s throw

A foreign land

Where people are strangers,

New friends

Would-be enemies,

Swimming against the tide.

I hold out my hand

A fat old lady

Pulls me away

They are not our sort

She cries

But they are just there

Shuffling along in

Orderly queues

As is the English way.

Ferry boats

And sinking ships

Come to take them away

To the other side

Where they await

Their amputation.

Bloody little secrets

Make a mark

Incised into the skin

Make them different.

If it makes you feel okay

Take another strawberry

A glace cherry

Fill your mouth

It will stop the words from falling out

Never go to war

On an empty stomach

Never wave a stick

At a hornet's nest

And never say goodbye

To your childhood

When it is the closest place to heaven

You will ever be.