Poem 280

There were two actual children’s crusades in the 1200s both ending in death, exploitation and tragedy – but here I’m using it as a metaphor for the youth-centric cultural uprisings of the 60s and 70s … written in 1980 in my last year at university in Hamilton, by that point the rear-view mirror clearly showed the bursts of energy in the mid-years of both decades becoming tattered corrupted and commodified by decades-end … to really make the point, it was only a matter of weeks after I wrote this that John Lennon was murdered (see Poem 167) …

( form and structure here making for good rhythm and nursery rhyme feel … I like the double meaning of keepers (jail-keepers and those who hold power to themselves) and how the blame is put equally on those without and those within the movement … )

Children’s Crusade

once a decade
the children's crusade
winds out
once a decade
the children's crusade
finds out

we went over the sea
with a candle and a key
we crossed the land
to hold out our hand
in the tombs the elders were hollowing
but the pledge was betrayed
on the children's crusade
the keepers were cruel
and our leaders were fools
and we even worse for following

in the middle of the decade
the children's crusade
wound out
in a shallow grave
the children's crusade
found out