Alvis Peace Camp
woodsmoke blessings embrace us all
as vicious December gusts
pitch sparks and embers
spinning past our eyes
in the middle of the Walsgrave Triangle Industrial Estate
we taste rain and flame and song
swig beer and cider with
our East Timorese refugee friends
huddle together against
the cold of our impotence
and the grief at the heart of our rage
Penny, John, Rosie and Becqie
our well-clad and windswept pacifist hosts
furnish us with food
fit for a kingfisher
chilli-bean stew, dumplings and spuds
and a plasticbucketfull of salad
do the rounds
and thirty bellyfulls of loving fare
soon warm us from within
this disarmy
now well fed
enjoys good voice, open heart, fine fettle
we sing our songs and spin our spells
to crack these gods of metal
in the middle of the Walsgrave Triangle Industrial Estate
we make mud
not war
woodsmoke blessings embrace us all
as vicious December gusts
pitch sparks and embers
spinning past our eyes
in the middle of the Walsgrave Triangle Industrial Estate
we taste rain and flame and song
swig beer and cider with
our East Timorese refugee friends
huddle together against
the cold of our impotence
and the grief at the heart of our rage
Penny, John, Rosie and Becqie
our well-clad and windswept pacifist hosts
furnish us with food
fit for a kingfisher
chilli-bean stew, dumplings and spuds
and a plasticbucketfull of salad
do the rounds
and thirty bellyfulls of loving fare
soon warm us from within
this disarmy
now well fed
enjoys good voice, open heart, fine fettle
we sing our songs and spin our spells
to crack these gods of metal
in the middle of the Walsgrave Triangle Industrial Estate
we make mud
not war
Footnote In March 1995 the British government granted a license to Alvis to export tanks to the Indonesian regime, which was then engaged in a vicious war of occupation in East Timor.