Eenie meenie miny mo
Apple orange mango grape
Snap on the news and what da ya know
Looting murder pillage rape

Do what you will you can’t escape
Looting murder pillage rape

Parents who lock their kids away
Binding their eyes and ears with tape
Struggle vainly to keep at bay
Looting murder pillage rape

Yeah lock ’em up they won’t escape
Looting murder pillage rape

We sit like ghouls in front of screens
Watching helpless with mouths agape
As men go mad with war machines
Looting murder pillage rape

Rectangular is now the shape
Of looting murder pillage rape

Darwin showed us time and again
That we’re descended from the ape
But do genetics help explain
Looting murder pillage rape?

Yeah, dig down deep the spade will scrape
On looting murder pillage rape

*****

Les Brookes writes: “The inspiration for this poem came “unbidden”, as Hopkins wrote of his “Terrible” Sonnets. I usually watch the news while having supper and am always struck by the violent contrast between my situation and the howling grief of people, especially parents, in war-torn regions of the world. It therefore seemed appropriate to express this contrast though the innocence of a child’s skipping song.”

‘Skipping Song’ was originally published in Pulsebeat Poetry Journal.

Les Brookes lives in Cambridge UK. He writes poetry and fiction, and his work has appeared on webzines and in anthologies published by Cambridge Writers and Paradise Press. Website: http://www.lesbrookes.com

Illustration: “Skipping rope dance 2021-02-09” by Asanagi is marked with CC0 1.0.