For You Too

So You’ve Lost

So you’ve lost
You
With your political inanity
After years of your inhumanity
When you blossomed on a tree of deception
Now you’re an item in a trash can
A piece of life lying in a gutter of forgetfulness
Your voice is drowned
By a gathering wind of irrelevance
To be overcome at last
By prayers of reason
What you did is the stuff of your obituary
A cold example of the suffering
You and your in-crowd extolled
While countless victims
Endured the anguish of your schemes
To promote your power
All gone now
Look at you unelected
Cringing in a corner unnoticed
While a new order rises out of the mire you created
Get thee hence then whoever you have become
There is no place left for you here
Your era of rule
Is already a fading memory
That hangs in the air of change
Like dust
Dimming the beauty of the setting sun
Time is our friend and your foe
For it will take away your presence in our minds
Where once you dominated
Now all that is left of you there
Lingers
Like the Cheshire Cat’s* endless smile

*The Cheshire Cat was a figure in Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland

A Broad Church

You may disapprove
Of some of the things we do
Find fault
With our policy statements
But political life is complex
And we are a broad church
We believe in help for the destitute
As long as the economy stays strong
We strive overtly for peace
Although we sell weapons of war
We seek the greatest good for the greatest number
But channel profits to a selected few
Freedom is our trumpeted dream
Yet we jail refugees without trial
We declare all men are brothers
Even though we invade the vulnerable
We vow to end climate change
But still we export coal
Free speech is a part of the life we acclaim
Though one man owns all our media
Democracy is what we claim to hold dear
Yet we pork barrel without fear
All gender bias we deplore
But women rarely get equal pay
All power rests with the people
But we privatise everything
We proclaim belief in the brotherhood of man
Yet condone hate speak on the airwaves

Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
What a noble world surrounds us!

Take Me To Your Leader

Ah
There you are
A few words with you if you don’t mind
So you want to be a leader
All right then, let’s see
How good at lying are you?
Not the barefaced type, the obvious ones
It’s the subtle kind I mean
You know, the ones non thinkers can’t detect
What’s that?
You always try to tell the truth
That’s a worry
Even when money is involved?
Oh dear!
A major problem
Let us try oil and gas
Where do you stand on climate change?
You’ve got to be joking
That attitude would bankrupt the nation
And the river systems?
Don’t tell me you would put water for the environment
Ahead of farming industries
The more we speak the more concerned I become
One last hope
What about foreign policy?
Are you behind the latest arms deal?
No?
That’s it then, my friend
Leadership for you is out of the question
Your position is tremulous
In fact another career seems advisable
Politics is for wolves not sheep
I suggest you return to your former profession
Money flows to you in corporate commerce
More fluently
And there are far fewer people to deceive

Treasures Of The Mind

O I am old now
And my body constantly disobeys my wishes
Life is hard
Even when you do nothing
And the official verdict on your usefulness is zero
Yet I have some gems
Of experience
That for others are rare now
Largely unknown to today’s fresh-faced revellers
Once I could see the moon in clear air
Meandering across an uncontaminated sky
Benevolent, gentle
Like a shepherd tending sheep
I drank from streamlets many times
As I walked mountain pathways
Little rivulets of happiness they were, glad to quench my thirst
As they danced gaily by me
The noise of their passing like laughter
I picked wildflowers once, where concrete now stands
Radiances of colour, amazing timeless beauty
Samples of love to give my mother
I went fishing often, in a boat at night
So still, so quiet
You could hear a whisper from the other side of the bay
See the lights of houses reflected in the water
And the stars so bright they seemed just out of reach
I walked where once a forest was
Colourful birds kept me company there
It was fun to eavesdrop their conversations
Shafts of sunlight filtered through the shadows
And the occasional butterfly danced on the air
Breathtaking glimpses of colour
And all was quiet in the world
So here I am, confined to a room
Lonely you might assume and fading away
But how can that be when your mind has such riches?

Values

Everything has a money value these days
Time is a commodity
Kindness depends on price
Happiness can be bought from the right shopping list
But check the flyers carefully
Weigh up the spiel most guardedly
Read the evidence like Sherlock Holmes
Forego free bargains
Beware of buy now pay later
Disregard false medical allusions
Turn your back on animated illusions
Condemn fraudulent promotional portrayals
And watch the business world explode in a puff of verity

royciebaby