City Blocks
(After ‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae)

In city blocks the missiles, bombs explode,
families slaughtered in homes, on the road,
in basement boltholes civilians still hold
sick and starving, huddled against the cold,
no exit: violence sowed and violence flowed.

Refugees, now expelled from our abode,
ethnic cleansing makes us leave by the cartload
with gaping wounds, our suffering untold,
in city blocks.

Unwanted, unseen, our futures corrode,
an unending agony war has bestowed.
A flattened town, what return could unfold
when the price of peace is our birthright sold,
for nothing’s left — only shrouds to be sewed
in city blocks.

News

The news shimmers, intangible,
ungraspable, a glittering curtain
of sequins, lacking solidity,
until you know the source.
The information presented
by mainstream media,
subject to editors and fact-checking,
all those controls to make it accurate,
is bland and boring, of no account.
Give me the wild ride of social media,
strong opinions and entertaining takedowns,
a rollercoaster of vitriol,
to bring the visceral excitement
of bold colours to our lives.
The mere truths of daily facts
make a dull monochrome world.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Now I know I’m living
in nineteen eighty-four —
when the leader of Oceania
announced that Eurasia
started the war with Eastasia,
the Ministry of Truth
rewriting history to reflect
the latest developments,
Ukraine invaded Russia,
something we always knew,
and we love Big Brother too.

Raised Arms

Fascists no longer need raise
their arms in a Nazi salute,
they don’t have to
express their solidarity
against the mainstream
when their views have obtained
common currency,
when many agree outsiders
poison the blood,
are dirty vermin infesting the nation,
believe we should hold our benefits tight,
not share good fortune
with the less fortunate,
but build walls to keep outside
the people who would remind us
of our shared humanity.

Rohan Buettel lives in Canberra, Australia. His haiku appear in Australian and international journals (including Presence, Cattails and The Heron’s Nest). His longer poetry appears in various journals, including Rattle, The Goodlife Review, Meanjin, Meniscus, and Quadrant.

Featured image “Street art in Sydney – Climate change – 2026” photographed by Xyxyzyz to be licensed via creative commons 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.