Outrage

I think there's something wrong with our media reporting when three deaths in a bomb blast in Boston dominates the newspapers and TV channels for days and days on end, yet an explosion which kills 50 or more in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Iraq (the list goes on a bit...) barely manages a mention.

Outrage

The explosion comes

Always without warning

The ear-drum splitting noise

The force of the blast

And the shock-wave of percussion

And as shrapnel flies in all directions

Screams of terror fill the air

And a dust-cloud billows

As if to coat the bloody bodies

And hide them from inspection

The crack of concrete

And the crunch of shattered glass

An uneven layer of debris

The smoke and fire

The aftermath of bombers

Dealing out death and injury

Damaged bodies and severed limbs

Casualties littered across the street

The wail of urgent sirens

Heralds the arrival

Of police and paramedics

Who crawl across the debris

Pulling out the maimed

And mangled bodies

In unseen heroic acts

Then later stand outside the hospitals

And before the cameras

Naming individual victims

And talking about the numbers

And yet these official figures

Take on very different meanings

Depending on the country’s context

Whether in Boston or Baghdad

In England or Afghanistan

Where the value of a Western life

Becomes inflated by the media

And yet a Middle Eastern soul

Who was someone’s husband

Mother, father, brother

A lately-living person

Reduced to just a cipher

Somehow just a nameless victim

And worth something less

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2013