Alvis Peace Camp

woodsmoke blessings embrace us all
as vicious December gusts
pitch sparks and embers
spinning past our fiery eyes

in the middle of the Walsgrave Triangle Industrial Estate
we taste rain and flame and song
swig beer and cider and apple juice with
our East Timorese refugee friends
huddle together against
the cold of our impotence
held by the love
at the heart of 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 plasticbucketful of salad
do the rounds
and thirty bellyfuls of loving fare
soon warm us from within

this disarmy
now well fed
enjoys good voice
an open heart
fine fettle

we sing our songs and spin our spells
to crack these gods of military 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.