Oh, craven shadow
Can you draw your eyes away
And fix your gaze?
Can you ignore that
In front of you?
A truth
In its fierce intensity
Demanding your attention
Refusing to go away.
The inevitable is finally
Leaking out
Of the locked box
You’ve squirrelled away
Oozing out
From cracks and crevices
To show you
Your enduring shame.
Oh, craven shadow
A cancer that has been eating
At your soul
Invisibly doing its damage
Your suit of armour helpless
As your rotting corpse
Decomposes
A stench proceeding you
Growing stronger
More noticeable
Each and every
Passing day.
And even though
You control the airways
And set a nation’s agenda
Some truths are too big
To be contained
And this truth is one
That must be told
Your slights of hand
Cannot distract from this day.
There must be consequences
For those that shamed
And also, what of justice
For those silenced
For the depravities
On bodies soiled
For those whose very souls
Have fragmented
Living quiet lives burdened
Lives full of shame
Tortured lives
Extinguished
Oh, craven shadow
Time for truth
Your truth
The victim’s truth
To finally have
Their day.
The Spoken Word 