TERRORIST attacks with their appalling toll of innocents are a scourge of our modern world.

These lines reflect on what happened in London 10 years ago today.

A DECADE SINCE

Seven/Seven, Nine/Eleven,

Litanies from hell not heaven.

King's Cross to Russell Square

Some doomed travellers won't get there.

On the daily route from Aldgate

Some will meet a dreadful fate.

Just out of Edgeware Road

A vicious Circle will explode.

On the bus at Tavistock Square

Sudden death is lurking there.

The executioners kill themselves

To claim weird paradisial wealth.

Their puppet masters, full of hate,

Intact are balefully elate.

What kinder vision of mankind

Can lift such darkness from the blind?

The random heroes braving death

To comfort others' final breath?

The legless woman, full of grace,

Suffering with a saintly face?

The wonder of the basic good,

Confounding evil where it stood?