Us, Here, Now – Philip Dunkerley

Us, Here, Now
i.m. Gustav Metzger, 10/4/1926-1/3/2017 


There is no art in it:
the polish of the jackboot,
a boy fleeing into a forest,
a lifetime of indignation.

And there’s no art in
truculent belligerence,
slavish consumerism, or
the externalities of pollution.

Nor, indeed, is there art 
in ignorance, ill-gotten gains,
violation of others’ rights or
the obliteration of the past.

Things crack and fall apart
into nothingness, minds
are broken and undone, art
is pain, a weapon, a memory. 


Philip Dunkerley