The winter of humanity

Irony has reached levels of horror

Never imagined. On the BBC

They announce gloatingly that Julian Assange

Will be extradited to a gulag in fascist America —

The greatest journalist-exposer of war-crimes ever —

And the next moment they announce the Nobel Peace Prize

Has been given to two journalists for the first time

Since the Nazi period — they congratulate themselves

That freedom of speech and the press has been honoured,

On the very day it is being trampled underfoot.

That the CIA pawn Muratov and his Western rag

Novaya Gazeta, a propaganda sheet

For the CIA-MI6 plot against Russia,

Are rewarded for inciting war, while the greatest exposer

Of war crimes and crimes against humanity

Since Nuremburg is condemned to slow death

In a US concentration camp — is there no voice

To howl this iniquity to the heavens, to scream

Till windows break, till hearts stop beating, till evil

Freezes in its devil’s tracks? — No, nothing happens.

No scream is heard. The world goes on with its chatter.

While outside, the snow piles up, and portends

An endless winter for humanity.

Michael Antony