Round and round it goes

Here's a Jacqueline Saphra poem, as taken from her pictured 2023 volume:


War Games

Despair is the parcel
we pass amongst us.

Round and round it goes.
It is good to share, we say.

One by one
each of us adds our own

small and pointless contribution
until the music stops.

Now the parcel is so heavy
nobody can lift it anymore.

No matter.

It has learned to grow
without our help.

We leave despair 
in the centre 
of the circle and stare at it.

It does nothing.
It is not ashamed.

It stares right back at us
from one huge screaming eye.

---

Jacqueline Saphra

---