Stuart Robertson - Photographer

Short step back remembering

A time when this race was renowned for reserve

Keeping grief in the family

And behind closed-doors

Something shifted

Cause or effect

Right-wing chip wrappers

Dripping with

Fear

Indignation

Jingoism

We must weep, wail

Wear heart-shaped badges

Or face reprisals

 

Began with the fate of a fairy-tale princess

Real-life ending hot off the press

Mourned as one of their own by soap-opera lovers

“Show some respect”

Or perhaps purchase flowers

Mass misplaced feeling

That they really knew her

To fill up a void emotionally stunted

 

Natural sadness

For lost friends, kin and neighbours

But where does it come from

this over-stretched empathy?

A Daily broadcast of extended sympathy

Barely conceals the whisper for biblical justice

Be suspicious of strangers

because they’re out to get us

 

Unremarked spoils of a stalemate crusade

Ambiguous Grail for oil-field rancher’s showdown

Public grieving imported from places far-flung

Where suffering is routine like faith and machine-gun

Drawn together by strong belief

and not by the TV screen