There’s an ache in my kidneys 
It’s stuck fast to me 
It seems to go deeper 
Than just physically 

When I least expect it 
The pain creeps up on me 
Like a divine messenger 
Whispering its prophecy 

I clutch my aching flesh 
On my left or my right 
I press desperate fingers 
On the tormenting side 

And then I hear the words 
As they form in my head 
The pain cannon-balling them
Into shooting threads 

It’s a manifestation of 
Trying hard to fit in 
Of being torn to pieces 
Every single day within 

It’s the gathering storm 
On every page in my feed 
Of a debt-propelled suicide 
Of a billionaire’s feast 

It’s the hungry eyes 
That sit in their deathly sockets 
It’s the bloated engines 
Of Mars-bound rockets 

It’s people breaking out of 
Society’s pristine box 
To be trodden underfoot 
By the conventionally orthodox 

It’s the clamour of politics 
Economics and faith 
It’s the thousand new ways 
We resent and we hate 

These barbs sit inside me 
Each waiting its turn 
They’ll wound and they’ll lance me 
Until they’re felt and they’re heard 

There’s an ache in my kidneys 
Of a tragedy that’s new
Or one that’s lingered awhile 
And now is screaming its truth.