What if?

Life could be

Peaceful

The road not yet taken

The formula gone

Creating beauty

From a seed

Watching it grow

Leaving only what life needs

Nothing more

What if?

Hope conquered fear

And joy was for all

A better world, for sure

Moving past what has had its day

No perfection, please

Just free

~ Camille

This poem appears in The Precipice, Camille’s third poetry collection, which centres on the rising inequality — profit over people — being the cause of our most urgent global crises, and that confronting this imbalance is essential if we are to step back from the edge. What If? captures the possibility that still exists, should we choose a different path.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Ghosts in the machine

We live on the outside

Of locked doors

We walk on by

A mournful sigh escapes

We can see

But are never seen

Remember me

You saw no reflection

So a living wage was taken away

Dehumanising the worker

They are seen as a machine

Assembled to serve

A ghost of a being

With a face to smile

A touch that soothes

This is no machine

Now do you see?

Connections will be made

The light of the spirit flickers

So one day we will be free

~ Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in the poetry Collection RISE. This poem confronts the dehumanisation of workers in systems that reduce people to function, stripping them of dignity, visibility, and fair compensation.

This poem is available as a contemporary poetry print on textured recycled card.

Should we fight?

For Freedom

For Equality

For Love

For Peace

For Justice

Fight to win?

For every winner there is a loser

For every loser sows a seed

From dark roots will grow

Another winner, another loser

I have slept in the dark

and awoken to the light

A revelation if you will

a sigh of relief, a day to live

Exercise freedom of the mind

Practice equality in daily labors

Share love without restraint

Make peace with the anger,

so anger may dissipate

Forgo the circus show,

allowing them to fall by their own hand

May justice be served by happiness abound

~ Camille Delaquise

This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut collection of contemporary poetry, which received critical acclaim upon its release.

It is also available as a contemporary art print, produced on textured recycled card.