fractions and fragments broken on the head
of tiny knowledge things that have been turned
between swift signals when the court adjourned
throwing us out into the wider dread
of rotting time and weeds in the rose-bed
such were the wages which our fear had earned
in the dry season while the forest burned
you spoke and no one heard a thing you said
justice requires a citizen must pay
for all the pleasures and the sins of state
since honour’s lash is straightforward and harsh
this rule is clear there are no shades of grey
nor compromises on the road to fate
just noisy birds that call out on the marsh
