We play Carcassonne on a tiny hospital table,
Adding tiles to a map of idyllic French countryside,
Creating new territories, pushing frontiers.
We are not the only colonisers.
Silent uninvited armies are invading,
Stomach, lungs, lymph nodes.
No lucky turn can fix this map.
The lines have been drawn, dark treaties signed.
We are the villagers, defenceless and afraid.
Watching our kingdom burn.
A terror that won’t go back in the box.
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