Thinkers by Ben Adams

Francis Bacon is under siege
dug in
flecked with dirt
and gore in a front-line trench
somewhere

taking sips of Dutch courage
from a pockmarked flask while Hume
downs Chivas Regal and Descartes

is eating sour cheese,
lighting cigarettes trying
to ignore the endless waves of those
who live and die
blind

who give themselves
to these bullets

who throw themselves
on bayonets

only to know
what it feels like to believe in

money
god
not all men

something, anything
to keep the clocks ticking over

the trains running
on time

to keep the heart-mind-thinkers
running scared, on the back foot, dug in
hard—

so Ludwig plays the moonlight
as dawn breaks

Voltaire man's the rusty
machine gun

and Mary Shelley looks on
with an eyebrow raised

as wave
after rolling wave they come,

determined martyrs
to the mantra:
make it great, again

Ben Adams is a poet, writer, servo-clerk, research assistant and festival cash wrangler, with honors in History and English. His poetry has appeared in a range of print and online publications, including Australian Love Poems, The Grapple Annual, Red Fez, Tulpa Magazine and InDaily. Recently, his poem 'Wet Leaves' was included as part of the 2018 Raining Poetry in Adelaide street-art project, while several poems were performed for Quart Short Collective’s Spring Shorts reading night. He can be found on Facebook, shares poems and photography on Instagram @bts.adams while poems and politics can be found on his Twitter feed @badbadams