The price of empathy

My country ought to be ashamed
to need so many rooms like these.
Darts of blue and red bleed sunlight
through the stained glass windows –
trestle tables, shelves of given food.
I am reminded of another shop
in crimson, dark, and cupboard-wide,
adorned with mirrors, brass and copper.
Slender fingers rose in ochre light –
ishroon’a – twenty. I protested.

Are you not American?
A smile embraces. British?
You are third world too. I understand.

Where are the women?
(Found poem)

Wolverley and Cookley,
Caunsall and Blakeshall..
Edited by Marcus Hart,
Conservative Matters.
Stephen Williams,
here with Ian Hardiman
MP Mark Garnier,
Councillor Gordon Yarranton
and Councillor John Hart.

Contact your local team.
Vote for choice.

Kathy lives in Worcestershire and has a parallel life working for museums and heritage. She’s had some thirty poems accepted in magazines and is now thinking about risking an entry to a pamphlet competition.