Only One

Silent Violence

A penny for the old guy. T S Eliot: The Hollow Men
All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Author Unknown.

Listen! Listen! Do you hear, my Dear?
Listen! Listen! Is it the silence you fear?

Did you see the old guy begging for your penny?
Did you, like me, with a shake of your head, imply you hadn’t any?


Was that observant mongrel dog sole witness to his end?
Did he die irrelevant, in that street with but one friend?

Will pity give you passion to talk about his fate,
Or will your mind be countersigned by your final tax rebate?

Listen! Listen! Do you hear, my Dear?
Listen! Listen! Is it the silence you fear?

Are those men your soldiers, bleeding from your thrust,
Sent to die by the man at the top you gullibly learnt to trust?

Did your shares produce the guns that led their world to war?
Did the spin create the din to hide what those shares were for?

Are those dead children yours my Dear, lying in the dust?
Did you buy those toys of theirs, broken and left to rust?


Do your words impale your heart, in a vain bid to come out
And tell this other story, when killing is about?

Listen! Listen! Do you hear, my Dear?
Listen! Listen! Is it the silence you fear?

Do you hear the anguish of that solitary pauper


At another inquest caused by an affluent nation’s torpor?

Did you see a welfare plan and savagely begrudge it,
To vote in the assassin with his hallowed balanced budget ?

Cries and sighs are everywhere, unheard by many ears;
Why are comfort and profit all your planning reveres?

Speak! Speak! Do you hear, my Dear?
Speak! Speak! Is it the silence you fear?

Silence can be violence, subtle and unseen;
When a voice is needed, are not closed lips obscene?

royciebaby