Strider Marcus Jones
 

in our house
i binned the radio
for playing Strauss-

left the suited rodeo
of casino Faust
and shot the gentry shooting grouse.


 into the wild garden
without spun jargon
we went


 through rusting arch of rose dissent
onto the precipice of peace
where slush borders grip and grease


 like usurping tectonic plates
shapeshifting smaller states.
their innocents bombed and dispossessed


 join our shoaled oppressed
of obedient possessed-
while The Mad Hatter


 hiding in Dark Matter-
says blame them, instead of Strauss
in suits playing casino Faust


and enslaving gentry shooting grouse.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate, and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal(lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com). A member of The Poetry Society, nominated for the Pushcart Prize x3 and Best of the Net x3, his five published books of poetry (stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com) reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. His poetry has been published in numerous publications including Poppy Road Review, The Galway Review, The Huffington Post USA, The Stray Branch Literary Magazine, Crack The Spine Literary Magazine, The Lampeter Review, Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine, and Dissident Voice.

This poem appeared in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age — Summer 2025, published by The Chaos Section Poetry Project. We’ll be featuring each poem from the collection individually in the weeks ahead. You can read the full collection or download a free PDF of the chapbook here.