Two women

Phipps and Rebecca

They were last seen

In the Quarter of the Dead

I was a fraud but frauds survive

As I had stolen the bloodied armband

From a dead Red Cross worker

Although I knew little about aid

I had a basic knowledge

As I made my way towards the front line

I was swamped by the chaos

As terrified people ran towards

The Roses of the White Port

The whole mess was complicated

By a number of Western Dreamers

Who wanted to do their bit

Praise Marx and pass the Shroud

This is not Spain

Marx is Dead

I yelled as I progressed slowly

Towards the Epicentre of Hell

I had been stopped on many occasions

By those who had stared into the crystal abyss

A Lebanese man gave me a gift

After I stemmed his bleeding

He kissed me on my cheek

Nearby was a shattered market stall

Which partially hid the corpse of his brother

We were in my Paris apartment

A deep French song

Was dull on my record player

Phipps was reading a book

And occasionally glancing out of the window

Rebecca was trying to complete

The Jigsaw Puzzle of the Revolution

Which had indirectly helped

Me to locate them

I had been told by a fleeing cop

That two Western women

Had been injured in an explosion

At a bank near the railway tracks

And this is where I found them

On a traffic island sitting against a wall

They had both been injured

By the debris from the blast

Mainly on their exposed legs and arms

Phipps wept as soon as she saw me

He Waits for Me

He Waits For Me

She hummed between her tears

My attention was interrupted for a moment

As I saw a burning high speed train

Cross a fragile bridge

On its journey into the unknown

I looked over Phipps shoulder

Rebecca was engrossed in a jigsaw puzzle

Beside her there was a Uzi

Sje was mi=umbling

Almost incoherently

Thermobaric weapons

They have thermobaric weapons

We are all fucked

My Uzi is empty

I have retired my Uzi

I insisted that it was time to leave

As I could hear intense gunfire in the distance

Rebecca wanted to complete the jigsaw puzzle

So I compromised and told her that in my Paris Apartment

I had many jigsaw puzzles

Phipps enquired of the windows

Overlooking the street

I told her that I overlooked

The Parc of Many Weathers

Danny why did you rescue us

Was the final song on Paybacks latest album

Phipps looked up from her book

Danny why did you rescue us

My name is not Danny

It used to be Danny

In a past life

My name is William

Rebecca walked in to the sunlit room

She had completed her jigsaw puzzle

And wanted to explore the parc opposite