It seems every day another soldier is buried for a cause politicians are trying to justify and persuade us it can be done despite what history tells us.

The following is inspired from a news report on the BBC featuring funeral footage of a mother who's son made her promise if he died, when the funeral as all over the TV she would not cry. True to her promise she kept it and for those fleeting few moments of camera work you could see how hard it was.

Promise

White fertility has become driftwood upon cheated oil.
Street veins clog, reach like an echo
resound on living room windows and tug the blinds.
Cradled by the arms she chokes on feet of glass,
chews down on black clouds with fractured teeth
She holds back gasps of the falling sky
a mothers promise to a son
she thought she would never have to keep.

I am not against war. Sometimes whether we want it or not, war must be undertaken. However, I am against politicians and their bad decisions when it comes to deciding to go to war or to send off troops for token good causes.

The inspiration for the following comes from a number of things, the rising death toll of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the black and white pictures of contorted corpses from World War 1 and World War 2 and photos from an article of a pregnant American woman standing vigil with marines over the coffin of her dead husband.

In days gone English Kings went to war and stood on the field. It is about time our policitans and Prime Minister showed they to are prepared to put their own life in the balance on the front line for the cause they are so keen to blabber with indifference.