DEAD AIR ON THE RADIO

i
observed the two minute silence
for
the
first
time
since
i was made to
back at junior school
where
my
idea
of
war
was Carey Grant in Father Goose

and
i
thought of the end of empires
wars new clinical terms
and
illusory
freedom

the radios dead air was pregnant
and
the
ignorant chatter in the corridor
stillborn