Yes, Still More Poems

Discrimination

O joy is mine in a lovely world
I am an adult male
My skin is white
And I am normal in every way
Play tennis and golf
With a skill that matches my normality
Work with diligence in a bank
Controlling the lives of so many
With overt good will
And obeisance to all the rules of commerce
Have an ideal home
With a garden
A place for my car
And a mortgage long since paid
Church is my haven every Sunday
Where I find peace and comfort
My children attend a neighbouring school
A source of pride for me In their uniforms of bold conformity
I love sport
Following Rugby League especially
And am a fan of the Roosters
My fitness is fine
I attend a gym regularly and walk in the morning
Love the theatre
With regular bookings through every season
Have a keen interest in politics
And always vote to protect my way of life
Yes
It is fair to say
With my fine picket fence painted a radiant white,
My home life is by all standards relaxed and comfortable
So why on earth do you intrude, my good woman,
Into my happy existence?
You with your deformed leg and your visa from a foreign land!

Kakistocracy

Aha!
Now we have you in our grasp
Incompetent we are
But nevertheless we are in charge of things
Because we know how to get your vote
And hang completely on to power
How do we do it?
A powerful question needs a powerful answer
Money is part of the story
Vested interests pay willingly and fund us very well
Media come next
All controlled by a single dinosaur
With the power of Tyrannosaurus Rex
Then there’s the house of cards
The place where when elected we work
O my how we perform there
With our catch-cries of non sequiturs:
Low tax (to woo our corporate friends)
A strong economy
(Where the rich get richer
And the poor stay poor)
Weapons of mass destruction
(For fabricated foes and with vast remuneration)
Then finally
Electoral expenditure in the right places
Ah me!
How we thrive on our ill-gotten gains!
We proclaim our virtuosity
While hiding each monstrosity
That flows from the agendas we follow
We are a villainous crowd
With voices ever so loud
Our cranial cavities seem hollow
Yet we are the chosen few
The ones who will get your ovation
As we mindlessly ruin the nation

War

Things are looking bad
Polls are not good
Defeat is lunging at your very heart
For the forthcoming election
You need a war
That’s it!
Or at least the threat of one
As the jester said: soc et tuum
And divert attention from your failures
With highly memorable epithets
To abuse the opposition:
Communist fellow travellers
Pacifist milksops
A danger to our freedom
A menace to our way of life
Do you see what I mean?
Easy to remember rhetoric
Repeated often
Then we need news from supportive media
Military exercises by “the enemy”
Images of his troop movements
Plus
Funded rioters who infiltrate that “enemy” camp
To imply problems with democracy
And finally
You ridicule your pacifist opposition
War not peace is the solution
Fill the air with fear
Anxiety
And you are almost there
You will build those atomic submarines
Buy those new helicopters
Those supreme invincible planes
When you win the election
With a mandate to destroy the world

The Honourable Member Be No Longer Heard

Mister Speaker
I rise today with a plea to help the needy
I speak in particular
On the matter of mental illness
Depression is the plague today, not COVID
In my electorate
Thirteen suicides have occurred in the last five years
Young people in particular
But people of every age need help
Desperate people torn apart by life
Need organised support
A team of mentors easily accessed
Not a mere phone call to an underfunded charity

Mister Speaker I move
The honourable member be no longer heard

To come to a country by boat is NOT illegal
Although ministers and others
Constantly refer to it as a crime
Mister Speaker
The real crime is the treatment of refugees
In the same way as murderers and pedophiles
With indefinite detention

Mister Speaker I move
The honourable member be no longer heard

I have been in contact with reliable research
Mister Speaker
I can today reveal details of political disgrace
Tales of chicanery
That belong to the age of rotten boroughs
Hypocrisy unequalled
Deception beyond restitution
Of this I will speak today

Mister Speaker I move
The honourable member be no longer heard

Love

Love is caring
Love is kind
Love will cure your troubled mind
Love will lead you far away
From the danger of hate
It will guide you
And remind you
That someone else shares your fate
You are not alone
When you love someone
And you never will be again
You will have company
In the darkest of times
With the courage to fight on then
So reach out now
You poor troubled soul
Give your heart to someone you love
You will soon find
The joy of living
Not confined to heaven above
It will echo
In whatever you do
Turn anguish into gladness
A triumph of pleasure
You will treasure
To put an end to sadness
So ring the bells
Cast your spells
And proclaim your love for someone
You will see angels
Outside paradise
And someone else will become one
So love on my friend
And take that chance
To end your troubled days
Then you will find
The cure for heartbreak
A thing only love can erase

royciebaby