Twenty-four Floors by Pamela Ireland Duffy

The cladding melted

fell from our eyes

with the bodies of our children

the illusion of a caring society

gone up in smoke

we see with the eyes of the dead now

staring out from hollow windows

of black towering truth…

 

Prejudice fanned into flame with newspaper

smears soot-stained into walls

facts distorted into twisted metal

figures spun into smoke

humanity costed into ash

behind closed doors

twenty-four floors of hopes and dreams

incinerated like rubbish…

 

The anger of the poor

once lit

burns deep

and only justice

can extinguish it

we see with the eyes of the dead now

we know what the dead know

we are not to blame.

 

For the people of Grenfell Tower, living and dead.