Indictment of the Month

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The Asylum

I

‘I’m sick of seeing asylum seekers
get to the head of the queue
in place of people who’ve paid in
for years, for hospitals, pensions,
schools…’ she said.

She who paid her taxes from the job
Where she worked at the corner shop,
Sixty per cent of whose customers
Worked at the nearby factory 
Which manufactured land mines,
Torture implements, and all those
Warlike goods which we export to
Poor countries in civil wars miles away
From where the asylum seekers 
Come from, needing treatment 
In our hospitals for the injuries
They’ve received from the weapons 
Which we’ve sold their governments 
Or countrymen, or enemies….

II

Perhaps an ’asylum seeker’
Doesn’t mean someone seeking
Refuge from horror or fear or
Hunger any longer, but someone
Entering a madhouse, where all
Logic has turned upside down,
Some bedlam where distorting
Mirrors rule,..