Threads, by Mark Connors

i

We live in the age of pulling threads,
open colossal cans of worms
which once kept bigotry contained.
We cannot help but hear them spill:
the plop, the seethe and the wriggling
to uncomfortable truths;
we have moved forwards but stepped back.
Our leaders pull threads and get votes,
legitimise bad behaviours
in our pubs, on radio
in the places where we go to work,
on a scale not known for decades.
They split countries 50/50
in ways which once caused civil wars.

ii

There was a film that shocked us, once,
about a nuclear winter
in Sheffield, of all places.
As realistic as it was,
the three-minute generation
were protected by a comfort:
mutually assured destruction,
as cold as a comfort can be
but a comforting deterrent
which is no longer evident
in these days of no trust. Seldom
have we seen such oscillation:
one day leaders threat to the brink,
the next day they are holding hands.

iii

We set up and pull on Facebook
and we are all provocateurs
in our own narrow little worlds.
When we don’t talk about our cats,
our kids, our holidays, our meals,
we will always be in conflict
with someone, somewhere: an old friend,
someone who never really was,
those we just don’t have time to see.
We will defriend our abusers
and then preach to our converted.
Our leaders will know what we feel,
keep pulling at our slender threads
and we will unravel, or not.

..

Mark Connors is a widely published poet and novelist from Leeds. His work has appeared in Envoi, Prole, Dream Catcher, The Salzburg Review, The Interpreter’s House and many other magazines and anthologies.  He has won prizes at Ilkley Literature Festival and North London Lit Fest. His debut poetry pamphlet, Life is a Long Song was published by OWF Press in 2015. His debut collection, Nothing is Meant to be Broken was published by Stairwell Books in 2017. www.markconnors.co.uk