sleep brings no rest

sleep brings no rest
brings dreams of work
like a slow tread
and a gathering
of priests and priestesses
friends
standing there
some you recognise
others you remember only vaguely
and you hold hands
and swing hands
from side to side
and exchange hugs and greetings
and are happy to see one another
as night turns into morning
and sleep ends with more greetings
more holding of hands
more swinging of hands from side to side
more exchanges of hugs and greetings
and more joy at seeing one another again

but no rest

In the time of monsters pulling wings off butterflies ...

When communities are in distress, the first reports on that distress come from the communities themselves. If these voices are not heeded, the harms they are complaining of become institutionalised. They become systemic. Normal. Unremarkable. Banal.

It is horrifying to read, in January 2026, that the Home Office is torturing refugees and asylum seekers as punishment for crossing the English Channel to seek refuge in Britain whilst being Black or Brown.

The Guardian reports that the asylum seekers - from conflict zones that include Sudan, Afghanistan and Iran - 'accuse the Home Office of subjecting them to arbitrary detention, denial of legal representation, inadequate medical care, degrading treatment and severe psychological harm.'

The people assert that they came to the UK 'in the pursuit of safety, dignity and a chance to live a peaceful life', and are 'calling on the UN and human rights groups to urgently investigate conditions that people detained for deportation under the 'one in, one out' scheme are held in.'

Once upon a time, Britain was the world's leading slave trading empire, and France was the third. 

It is horrifying that in 2026, Britain and France are, once again, in the business of trading in and treating racialised humans as cargo and commodities that can be traded between nations.