Grenfell Tower June 2017 - by Ben Okri

Grenfell Tower, June 2017 - A poem by Ben Okri It was like a burnt matchbox in the sky. It was black and long and burnt in the sky. You saw it through the flowering stump of trees. You saw it beyond the ochre spire of the church. You saw it in the tears of those who survived. You saw it through the rage of those who survived. You saw it past the posters of those who had burnt to ashes. You saw it past the posters of those who jumped to their deaths. You saw it through the TV images of flames through windows Running up the aluminium cladding You saw it in print images of flames bursting out from the roof. You heard it in the voices loud in the streets. You heard it in the cries in the air howling for justice. You heard it in the pubs the streets the basements the digs. You heard it in the wailing of women and the silent scream Of orphans wandering the streets Those who were living now are dead Those who were breathing are from the living earth fled. If you want to see how the poor die, come see Grenfell Tower. See the tower, and let a world-changing dream flower. Residents of the area call it the crematorium. It has revealed the undercurrents of our age. The poor who thought voting for the rich would save them. The poor who believed all that the papers said. The poor who listened with their fears. The poor who live in their rooms and dream for their kids. The poor are you and I, you in your garden of flowers, In your house of books, who gaze from afar At a destiny that draws near with another name. Sometimes it takes an image to wake up a nation From its secret shame. And here it is every name Of someone burnt to death, on the stairs or in their room, Who had no idea what they died for, or how they were betrayed. They did not die when they died; their deaths happened long Before. It happened in the minds of people who never saw Them. It happened in the profit margins. It happened In the laws. They died because money could be saved and made. They called the tower ugly; they named it an eyesore. All around the beautiful people in their beautiful houses Didn’t want the ugly tower to ruin their house prices. Ten million was spent to encase the tower in cladding. Had it ever been tested before except on this eyesore, Had it ever been tested for fire, been tried in a blaze? But it made the tower look pretty, yes it made the tower look pretty. But in twenty four storeys, not a single sprinkler. In twenty four storeys not a single alarm that worked. In twenty four storeys not a single fire escape, Only a single stairwell designed in hell, waiting For an inferno. That’s the story of our times. Make it pretty on the outside, but a death trap On the inside. Make the hollow sound nice, make The empty look nice. That’s all they will see, How it looks, how it sounds, not how it really is, unseen. But if you really look you can see it, if you really listen You can hear it. You’ve got to look beneath the cladding. There’s cladding everywhere. Political cladding, Economic cladding, intellectual cladding — things that look good But have no centre, have no heart, only moral padding. They say the words but the words are hollow. They make the gestures and the gestures are shallow. Their bodies come to the burnt tower but their souls don’t follow. Always there’s that discrepancy Between what happens and what we are told. The official figures were stuck at thirty. Truth in the world is rarer than gold. Bodies brought out in the dark Bodies still in the dark. Dark the smoke and dark the head. Those who were living are now dead. Make sense of these figures if you will For the spirit lives where truth cannot kill. Ten million spent on the falsely clad In a fire where hundreds lost all they had. Five million offered in relief Ought to make a nation alter its belief. An image gives life and an image kills. The heart reveals itself beyond political skills. In this age of austerity The poor die for others’ prosperity. Nurseries and libraries fade from the land. A strange time is shaping on the strand. A sword of fate hangs over the deafness of power. See the tower, and let a new world-changing thought flower. ______________________________________________ Watch: The Grenfell Massacre: Burning & Looting    • The Grenfell Massacre: Burning & Looting   Read: Grenfell – a case of mass murder through capitalist greed http://www.lalkar.org/article/2709/gr... ______________________________________________ Marxism will break our Chains! Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! http://www.redyouth.org http://www.cpgb-ml.org    / proletariancpgbml   http://www.lalkar.org Red Youth Education Program: Each one teach one! https://redyouth.org/each-one-teach-o... Join the struggle! http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secN... Donate: http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secN...