?

How can two British soldiers be 'undercover' in Basra? Didn't their white skin and English accents give them away?

'Doctor Ho's Theory'

'Perhaps it's your brain
That's giving you this trouble?'

Haha, my life's bane
- The possibility threatens to burst my bubble

I refuse to go home slain
Instead, I make a note: the will to fight, must redouble

3rd October 2003, in the car park, Royal Berkshire Hospital


'Easy Listening'

You merely blanched
at my threats
to make good the payback

You groaned
at the sledgehammers
dull thud,
only to scream
when your nervous system
registered your
shattered kneecaps.

In normal company
you merely bored me.
Now as you
entertain me
with your song of suffering -
from a whisper to a scream
I play Albert Ayler's
insane free jazz
'Truth is marching in'

I turn up the volume

23rd January 2004, another time, another place