General

#Bring back Our Girls

Fifteen Chibok girls stand in a line,their faces sombre, eyes haunted,expressions of the near-dead.They mutter their names as if they are ghosts“Maimuna…Rifkatu …Naomi …” These

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On the Death of Fidel Castro

We’re driving down the revolutionary road,jolted and near-asphyxiated in the ancient Lada.It’s held together with fibreglass and tape.Beside us in the smog-filled street, a gleaming

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National Poetry Day 2016

You walked beside mesome forty years or more,my right-hand woman,leaving footprints on the pavements,in the sand, in my home. You saw my babies born,and die,

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National Poetry Day 2016

In a Chelsea restaurantthe young boy sits stiffly,school blazer straight-backed,hands flat on flannel grey,darting glances at his father,whose fingertip commandmesmerises waiters to his wide. Father

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Epitaph to a Prime Minister

What a pretty pickle you’ve got us into, Dave,with all our politicians running in circles.Macmillan’s night of the long knives had nothing on this.They stabbed

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Aftermath

When the music stops there is silence.The fandango of support ceases, the front door shuts,the car doors close, the assembled crowd of wellwishers leaves.You are

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Unimpeachable

It’s 1973.  Georgetown is blooming;flower power blossoming the streets,twisting pink stems around long corkscrew curls,tie-dye T-shirts, purple bellbottom trousers,pavements stoned with grateful Dead posters. In

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Fantasy Life

You were 26 years old,witty, handsome.You worked for a fashion brandbehind the Royal Academy,relished a young man’s London life. After I heard the news I

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No Connection

In a Chelsea restaurantthe young boy sits stiffly,school blazer straight-backed,hands flat on flannel grey,darting glances at his father,whose fingertip commandmesmerises waiters to his side. Father

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