Since I was a child, I‘ve liked the viewpoint of the top deck

(I once saw a naked lady in an upstairs bedroom, with a naked

Man, she slightly less startling than him, what was that thing?)

And I am no less entertained by contemporary sightings.

Bungalows tend towards competition, like here it’s the number

Of cars in the driveway, but here now, the geometry of lawns, some

Formal others romantic in ambition, here again, hot tubs. A dog

Has shat in Tesco’s doorway and a female employee is not

About to obey an instruction to remove it, But now I can

See over the roofs to the firth, flushed red to the span

of the road bridge by the sun rising in a fine mist. The pilot boat

is carving its way downriver. I know that’s an oil rig in dock, I note

the attendant machines, but is it upside-down or right-way up?

One of this couple will leave from the bus station but now they prop

Each other in close embrace making a private place on the pavement

That everyone respects. Oh, the centre of town, my landmarks are ancient-

Where would I get a pint, buy a suit? Goodness, the Quakers are still there.

Near the Uni, I like that in deference to the intelligence of its customers

There is an Indian restaurant called Indian Restaurant and in deference

To upward mobility a Mortgage shop. I admire an enduring defence

Of civilisation, a noble sandstone library not yet abandoned. As we climb

The hill I glimpse a burial on the graveyard slopes, a mime

Of tears and rain. Then a high point, a roundabout from which I overlook

 the Carse to Perth, where gracious hills enclose the river and a squall soaks

the grasslands, then I keep my appointment at Ninewells Hospital

where specialist nurses inject my eye with fluid that prevents loss of all

sight in that one. The other is blind. I’m glad that this is possible.

 

A video from Thailand grabs my attention, it’s from Phuket

 well-known for holidays but not advocating tourism

in this case. Rather, it’s about the Dugong. Until recently

due to extensive beds of sea-grass, Dugongs gently

browsing could be seen in the shallow waters of the bays

offering sight of a rare and beautiful animal named Sirenides

after the maidens said to sing to sailors. Less romantic

observers called it the Sea-pig, In fact an elephant quit

the land to become a sea-dweller adapting in a time

of spreading oceans to many parts of the world, now confined

to the West Pacific, where the human destruction of coastland

and pollution of waters is killing off the sea grass. It can’t

survive without it. It moves slowly, head down, patient,

peaceful, and might be companionable if if I learned

to swim with it. Now the dugong of Phuket havedied or vanished.

 

A symbol of the process by which species are banished

From the universe is The Trump, huge, stupid and brutal

Active in many and expanding into more areas of futile

Hegemony with no purpose other than its pleasure

In being obeyed. Its human population is an erasure

Of life which it wants to extend without limit. We must

oppose it in the power of the democracy of living things,

the networks of atoms, the cognition of cells, the strings

of DNA, the leaps of evolution, the resource of bacteria

the invention of insects, the agility of fish, the media

 of fungi, the geography of birds, the embrace of animals,

and the languages of human beings auditory or visual

like the painted hands from the Sulawesi cave in today’s

newspaper 70,000 years old from Indonesia that say

We are here too, we can do it together, yes all together

For the good earth against The Trump. It is death or

Life, so we should declare against the American Anus

The truth that nothing and no-one is superfluous

To our vision of the good expressed in policies local

And international that are just, allowing what is fragile

To flourish in the face of all that is merely gigantic

And what is beautiful to grow in place of all that is slick

And powerful. If we only speak this, it will become our

Funeral oration, we must do it, although our bones are

Weary, for terminal things may happen now if the earth

is left to careless fools. But if we can succeed in this, then

The Trump’s remains will be food for our sewage system

While the Dugong, with enough seagrass for quality

Eating, will be an honoured citizen of our polity.

 

How did they get so brave, the citizens of Minneapolis

In the face of all too realistic threats of death from ICE?

After Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered, still

Hundreds were on the streets, opposing the violent will

Of their government with demands for humanity and justice,

Their ballsy humour giving their peacefulness some fizz.

Would I choose to join them in the face of state thuggery?

If you get in the way of rapists, you’re open to buggery,

that’s bad, but you can make rational predictions, whereas

The randomness of these killings makes them too various

For avoidance. Renee was getting her car out of the road

When they shot her in the face. I would wear nothing to goad

Them if I protested, my banner would say, “please go

Away, if you don’t mind,” or “Peace in our time, if that’s O

K with you.” I would smile inoffensively and be ready to strip

naked to prove I had no weapon. My trembling lip

would acknowledge, “Guns make me nervous.” Gangs

who kill without reason will not be soft-soaped. No chance

of mercy or even rational evil from Trump’s soldiers.

So these protesters in Minneapolis are a good deal bolder

than me, as they stand with those who have no choice,

The immigrants, who knew the USA as freedom’s voice.

 

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