The naïve main character cast,
employed and played in every script,
both fairy tales, all myths rehearsed –
yet we ourselves bear title rôle.
Unwary, gullible, or gulled,
beguiled by trusting those who dupe;
avoiding confrontation, feared –
too obvious to be embraced,
because we do not wish to face
that limit having met with grace.
Repeated theme through history,
ancestry’s wolf in Granny’s skin,
is little red for diffused blood,
the blush we claim for innocence,
when tales of horror daily bread,
if we would not deride what’s seen.
Denial’s borne in many ways,
as riding waves of populists,
or raising patriotic flags,
by wearing hoods hat blinker light.
When seek to brush it from our sight,
we find that still sting in the tail.
Stephen Kingsnorth (Cambridge M.A., English & Religious Studies), retired to Wales, UK, from ministry in the Methodist Church due to Parkinson’s Disease, has had pieces curated and published by on-line poetry sites, printed journals and anthologies, including Poetry Potion. He has, like so many, been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His blog is at https://poetrykingsnorth.wordpress.com