innocence ran away
somewhere in my twenties
it snuck out one night
and never came back

i weather the weather
i stormed the storms
and now i feel better

here are my chocolates and flowers
i wrapped them up
in my seconds, minutes and hours

standing there,
chained to the fence
do you hang onto a friend
from a demon’s park bench

they said to me,
i realise i am not the only pebble on the beach
and in that moment,
i realised that it’s easy to become out of reach

the right are moving in
fixed, targeted, ‘values’,
ideals,
that scupper hopes of a more cohesive unit

‘immigration’,
it is a favourite remark
the media tempt it
i have to let it pass