Paper Ghosts In An Upside Down World

Written words Lines and verses Poetry Fragments of an author's soul Frozen ink on paper Entombed emotions Imprisoned ideas Trapped thoughts Sentient silhouettes Paper phantoms Paper ghosts School during a civil war In six easy steps A place of learning and reason A propaganda soup cauldron A refuge of normality against war's insanity Atrocity Abandonment A broken concrete skeleton Empty Save for the paper ghosts A ransacked classroom The silence gives no clues to the tragedy Only a fleeting news item From survivor's stories with survivor's guilt Quickly scribbled Quickly read Quickly forgotten Buried in an archive Rarely indexed Rarely read Its paper ghost exorcised From the world's conscience By the weight of the world's problems A library bookcase Now a classroom carcase Books long since burnt First some were subversive Then all were subversive Cremated by the howling inferno Set by howling savages Firelit featureless faces Ashes scattered to the wind Paper ghosts of long dead authors Released from their paper prison A carbonised carbuncle now their marker On a silent playground Homework For those with homes And those without Record your feelings Free verse Forget strict rules Everyone else has The title "Autumn in a barren land" The assignments completed Collected, sorted, marked and graded Waiting to be returned to eager poets But never returned Precious parchment Captured soul fragments Now just children's paper ghosts In an empty room The boy who doesn't understand Backward sevens and zees No matter how many times corrected An illegible scrawl smeared with teardrops He cried whilst he tried "Well done! Good effort!" With a smily face The inseparable friends Never miss a class A joint effort, or so they say The stronger one sharing the glory Whilst holding her friend until she stops screaming "I enjoyed this - thank you both!" The orphaned boy One of many Lonely in a crowd of lonely children Sympathy divided and rationed And dried up long ago A blank page "Please keep trying. You are not alone" The silent girl Never speaks No one knows why Desperately tries to tell her story Imprisoned by horror Her poetry an escape to normality Pinned on the notice board A gold star stuck on the corner More deserving than those worn by bandoliered generals That the war seemed to spawn She wrote: "The leaves covered the ground Blown by a chill wind Pages torn from nature's book Their veins a portrait of their mother tree Broken by the storm Icicles grown and shattered A litter of sparkling diamonds Cherry stains mark the earth A muddy footprint a sign of humanity Amongst the broken branches Summer's ghosts" The poems covered the classroom floor Blown by a cold wind Leaves torn from civilisation's book Their writing a portrait of their mother land Broken by the storm Windows blown and shattered A litter of sparkling diamonds Blood stains marked the carpet A muddy bootprint a sign of inhumanity Amongst the broken desks Paper ghosts The forgotten children evacuated Maybe some survived Written 12th March 2017 Entry to "upside down world" contest