Notre Dame burns, Trump builds a shining wall
I write a poem
Twin Towers fall,

a terrorist bomb takes Manchester Arena

I write a poem

my head takes me on horror-trips
to places I never want to go
I write a poem

my brother dies and I’m haunted by guilt

the pain of things I didn’t do
I write a poem

the global population exceeds 7-billion

the Higgs Boson ignites,

the Endeavour Rover glitches on Mars
I write a poem

the white rhino goes functionally extinct,

my laptop crashes and loses my poems
I write new poems

right-wing anti-migrant parties

make electoral gains across Europe,

Brexit erodes sanity
I write a poem,

for everything we lose

at least we have poems,

while we have poems

we have hope

Andrew Darlington
Illustration Rupert Loydell