The Knife with the Eternal Blade

The Knife with the

Eternal Blade

The knife

That slices

Forever and ever through the air

Like when a butcher blades a cow's head from the body

But the jagged knife-tip gets caught in the table

Below the brutal meat

And keeps slicing through the atoms

And the termites that make their homes

In the silent creep of the underworld

A stench so pleasant

A fragrance that can choke

On a knife-tip that slices the smells

The odours of blood and rotting

Flesh

That people say they hate

That people thrive on

The knife cleaves the Earth in half

Like an orange

But more appealing than an orange

Is death, wouldn't you agree?

No?

Well then, I do not understand

That the gleam, gloss, gun trigger,

To welcome death to the next man that stands in the way

Is such a frequent hobby among humans: they call it war?

If death is truly all so bad

Why be proud to admit

That you fought and won battles for your country

By killing a man

Who was helpless beneath your foot?

As you stamped on his face

Squirted his own blood into his eyes and smiled

Smiled with the edge of the knife with the eternal blade

And the fat lips of the universe.

Ava Annahid Zamani

(age 13) Henrietta Barnett School