Public private partnerships

(Till death we do part)

For whom less is always more — for them

From whence
they all
before you,
came:
the Dead.
Some tall and thin,
some short and stout
their genitals
could wield
their limbs
astride not only foreign fields
where worry, war
where worship lay
from games
from deliveries,
imagined fame
or infamy for gallantry
mistaken.
Hope in grains
ground, formed
in shame
casually stolen
from all
before you,
victory stolen
by endless dread
harvested you,
while they stole
the bread.

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..