A Brief History Of Those Who Made Their Point Politely
And Then Went Home
For the men and women currently demonstrating on the streets of Iran.
On this day of tear-gas in Seoul
and windows broken at Dickins & Jones,
I can’t help wondering why a history
of those, who made their point politely
and then went home, has never been written.
Those who, in the heat of the moment,
never dislodged a policeman’s helmet,
never blocked the traffic or held the country to ransom.
Someone should ask them: “Was it all worth it?”
All those proud men and women, who never
had the National Guard sent in against them;
who left everything exactly as they found it,
without adding as much as a scratch to the paintwork;
who no-one bothered asking: “Are you or have you ever been?”
because we all knew damn well they never ever were.
Kevin Higgins
This poem is taken from Kevin’s first collection The Boy With No Face,
(Salmon Poetry, 2005) http://www.salmonpoetry.com/theboy.html
see footage of the demonstrations on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcHT8-ps64w
