Royce Levi Australian Teacher and Author

We Have A Plan

When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice
in a contemptible struggle.
Edmund Burke

O we know the secrets of monetary wrangling
To govern we have a plan
Our political game won’t stop at a mangling
Of the truth since time began
So we pander to the rich with tax relief
And ignore the needs of age care
Cut back on health beyond belief
And our wages policy’s not fair
Unemployment is low but the jobs are part time
And the cost of living’s excessive
Home violence is an unsolved crime
While our market for child care’s recessive
The virus has led us to stark machinations
Giving rise to lies by the score
We have been too late with vaccinations
And our testing was bungled what’s more
So vote for us soon and give us your push
For we are the devil you know
A nerd in the hand is worth two in the bush
Now’s your chance to make this so

Military-Industrial Complex

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

There’s money in war
Foes bring profits galore
Each conflict down the pages of history
Draws an income that is no mystery
Keep our nation safe is a lucrative cry
Munitions bring proceeds no one can deny
Though people will die, it’s the earnings that count
With utter denial of the Sermon On The Mount
All bombs are deadly effacements
But there’s lucre to be made from replacements
Soldiery means income so launch propaganda
Go into battle where rivals meander
Dead opponents mean cash in a manner chilling
There’s a mint to be made from every killing
Praise the dead at each opportunity
Give medals to heroes with stark impunity
Sound your trumpets and erect your shrines
Jail pacifists now or hit them with fines
Twist the truth via helpful media
On earth now there is no one greedier
Collect your winnings from each soldier’s last breath
As you corporatise each Valley of Death
Days shall not weary you nor the years condemn
Riches await you, so carpe diem*

*Seize the day

I’ve Always Been Very Consistent

I’ve always been very consistent
When found out
I lie constantly
Especially at press conferences
I am rude to women privately
While publicly I am a perfect gentleman
I never admit mistakes
It’s my standard practice to blame someone else
Condemnation flows from my tongue like climate change rain
But when I am rebuked I walk away
At times of crisis
I am never on time with a remedy
Although
I always have a plausible excuse
I despise the working class, reducing their wages
While I give huge tax deductions to my corporate soul mates
I build car parks only for my friends
Old people annoy me furiously
So I neglect them with great care and perseverance
I do not hesitate to break a contract
Even though
A consequence is a loss of billions
A strong economy is my catchcry
So I invest in oil, coal and weaponry
While to foster that neoliberal marketplace
I ignore the welfare of the poor and infirm
And reduce education funding to a pittance
After this revelatory description
I am sure you can guess who I am

This Election Is About The Economy

Our economy is strong
Triple A rating
Four percent unemployment
An example to the whole world
Because
Some salaries create slave labour
Part time work demands two or more jobs
Hospitals are underfunded
Age care is even worse
Less fortunate still is education
Child care bankrupts families
Costs make the living stay hungry
Home sweet home is too often a fanciful dream
Accountability eludes the favoured ones
As reality dies
Corporations mind their own business
And control policies
The rich get richer and the poor get taxed
Fraudulent politics go unfettered
Global warming is diligently funded
While weather forecasts foretell more disaster
Weapons industries flourish
And lies are the secret code of the captain to the troops
So vote now to maintain
This best of all possible worlds

We Are A Pro-forestry Government

We are a pro-forestry government
And it’s jobs jobs jobs
Our axes are sharp and our chain saws thunder
The way we get timber is a wonder
As we cut down trees
Once saplings when Columbus was a boy
Wood is good and recyclable
We don’t care what those activists say
Don’t listen to their negative voices
It’s at work that the axeman rejoices
To Hell with photosynthesis
Who cares if trees turn CO2
Into oxygen without ado?
They use the energy of the sun
To clean our polluted air
But we do not care
Forests are the havens of many living things
No problem the death that cutting down brings
So there, and that is the value of Arbor Day
To increase the volume of the logger’s pay
What we cut down has brought on the rain
And made our place look like the Nullarbor Plain
But although the heart of each bark-hugger sank
We all stood tall on our way to the bank

I Designed The Boat Turn-back Policy

I designed the boat turn-back policy
It’s all my work and I’m proud of it
Refugees are my source of promotion
I spread the lie
That there was a queue
Even though it didn’t exist
I ignored the international law
Refugees have a right of entry
I devised a scheme of indefinite detention
Implementing it without compassion
Habeas corpus meant nothing to me
Year after year after year after year
People were to suffer the detention I condoned
Even suicide or self harm of my victims
Failed to soften my rigour
I knew that racism exists today
Often secretive
Although the White Australia Policy
Is evidence that inspires me
I know recent success of extremists shows
There are votes in it
I understand too that dangerous entry by plane
Is possible
But the people-smuggler game plan
Is a convenient subterfuge to validate my cruel procedures
Promote the myth of border security
And get votes
Yes I agree, my brilliant scheme
Has been very costly
And diverted funds from health and aged care
Education and climate policy
But of course economic management is my strength
And I have covered my tracks well
So vote for me because unemployment is down

royciebaby

Limbo

Purgatory is where I live
Otherwise known as Nauru
For I sought asylum
To be doomed there instead
In bondage
Although I have done no wrong
There is no queue I am accused of jumping
To travel by boat is not a crime
Refuge sought is not a dangerous thing
But an end of suffering for damaged souls
In this place
Morning is a herald of sadness
Each day is a punishment for living
We the unwanted ones
Are mere shadows of existence
The sun and the moon and the endless stars
Do not belong to us
They are part of a future we do not have
A property of others
The wild creatures in the bush around us
Are the lucky ones
They are free
Born in the right place
Not subject to inhumane ordinances
Defined as border protection
O how the years pass
Relentlessly long for me
Time is a curse
That changes me into an android of impotence
Longing longing longing
To find my humanity
So here I stay
Pretending to be alive
Knowing that my destiny
Is merely to survive
Maybe

Deadly Diversity

Under the Southern Cross no more
Do we make cars as we did before
Goodbye to Holden, Ford and Toyota
They are now part of the import quota
But wonder of wonders all is not lost
Armoured cars are now made at half the cost
Weapons of war are the new solution
As hostile relations promote convolution
A military industrial complex now thrives
And that is the way our budget survives
Yes war is a business the pundit declares
So call it defence and brandish your wares
Next will come submarines, rockets and guns
Plus dignified killing for our daughters and sons
So polish each barrel
Don hostile apparel
Find a foe, spin a yarn of fictitious woe
Then watch the money flow
Yes warfare is a golden ruse held dear by the rich and wily
Who’ll start a conflict cunningly and make their profit slyly
So once more into the battle boys with your warlike friends
Battlegrounds are where profit lies, a market that never ends
And if history tends to criticise, you needn’t walk the plank
Just stand aside if others deride and enjoy your stroll to the bank

Truth

A funny thing happened to me yesterday
A stranger told me the truth
I knew he wasn’t misleading
Because the evidence was very strong
Provided you looked for it
With an open mind
He seemed to have no ulterior motive
As some people do
Especially those with a political agenda
His demeanour was in no way furtive
He looked straight into my eyes
Voice calm and gentle yet poignant
We seemed to enjoy our meeting
Mutually
Ongoing with lasting respect
Our discourse was gentle and pleasant
Courteous
Kindly responding to each other’s curiosity
Tinctured with a smile or two
Exchanging ideas in a way
That could begin a beautiful friendship
We exchanged details of our lives
With unusual veracity for a first meeting
We brushed minds willingly and honestly
Yes, company enjoyed
Then came the words
That rang rings around my brain
A truth I dared not deny
He said
At my age
All that I am
Will soon exist only in the memories of others
Yes that was right
So now I struggle incessantly for worthy recollections
Every day
And sometimes every night

That Is The Way Of Things Now

I don’t walk very well these days
It’s because I am so old
Every step is painful
My balance is rather shaky as well
Travelling from point a to point b
Is an adventure, a challenge
I keep thinking of the best way should I fall
Planning carefully
And deciding I will be a balloon
Suddenly deflating
Yes that’s it, relaxation is the salvation if I crash
I will melt into the ground
The way I used to die on the stage as an actor
I’ve just hung some washing on the line
The journey from the laundry was infinite
Never ending
I made it, eventually without falling
Although I came very close to that
Pegging out the clothes is far from easy
As your atrophied neck
Resists upward movement of the head
But somehow I managed
Then it was back to the house
Another odyssey
This time disaster struck: down I went
My survival plan worked
I relaxed and survived
But wonder of wonders a beautiful butterfly didn’t
It flew under my falling body
That lovely creature would no longer dance on the air
I looked at what I had done to that crushed poor thing
Suddenly I became wise
What was left of me was still alive
Yes life remained mine despite my decrepitude
And there was so much more left to do
That is the way of things now

royciebaby

Mission Statement

Everything is a part of the economy
Balance sheets determine all destinies these days
People don’t act with free will any more
They simply obediently consume
Brains are no longer merely washed
They are dry cleaned
So you do as others wish
As fashionable consumption
While the state funds private power
So rally round the flag boys
You journeymen with a mission
Privatise your garbage bins
Let your rubbish get a commission
Brave is the spirit that surrounds itself
With entrepreneurial schemes
You never can tell what might befall
If you cash in on your dreams
The era of affordable study
Is now a thing of the past
Fees are so high no one can deny
This leaves each poor scholar aghast
You no longer can serve the human race
As a student in any faculty
Unless you can pay for your place
So you sell junk food for the corporate rich
For peanuts to fund your remittance
Your life goes on at a fever pitch
As you struggle to live with a pittance
That the budget is strong is all that matters
Cast the poor and the old aside
No help for those with lives in tatters
They’re the nuisances you deride
It’s another brave new world at last
Designed by the corporate few
Visionary thought belongs to the past
And there’s nothing we fall guys can do

But prey

False Idols

I speak today of a manic oppressor
I name not the land I defame
But it reaches with hungry talons around the earth
Pretending kindness and shamming virtue
Proclaiming the while a manifest destiny of hope
While its true intent is its own enrichment
It is brutal
A killer of innocents to achieve its ends
A pitiless schemer
It organises overthrow of hostile governments
With tyrannical cunning
Sowing seeds of discontent by furtive means
To remove dissent through orchestrated rebellion
And then sets up false idols to do its bidding
Puppets with ill-gotten power
Who share the loot of the expanding empire
And make possible that expansion…
Thus it has been
A century of misdeeds that murder morality
An age of gain on many a foreign plain
One after many another
Time has not wearied them while few condemn
And the coffers grow like wildfire in summer
The power of this land is frightening
More potent and widespread than ever known before
Yet its leaders boast of humility and good taste
And proclaim their way is the only way that matters
They boast of empathy and kindness
Yet their land is beset with guns
Everywhere, and Death marches where black men walk
Do you hear me O Genghis of modern times?
Are you aware of the cries responding to what you have done?
Your Fascism is now recognised, and we the people
The victims
Are now united on the global computer network
With a voice louder than you’ve ever heard before

Angry Words

In the name of mercy will you stop talking
Silence when you speak is golden
Always
Your every sentence
Is a life sentence for your listeners
Everything you say
Is designed to enhance your reputation
Or malign your enemies
Your lies
Have a ring of truth about them
Because of the way you frame the message
You are cunningly innocent
Not making damaging statements
And praising popular inanities with a fake smile
Creating the illusion, or is it delusion,
Of golden haired virtue
Before you speak you check focus groups
To gain awareness of popular trends
You give Gallup polls biblical significance
And newspaper moguls are your spoilt children
Words are your counterfeit tools
With which you create a devious art form
That hangs in the halls of power
Your acquaintances are not friends
As friends are dangerous when they err and lose face
Instead those contacts are either allies or foes
You shake many hands however,
Fawn on old people and nurse children
All for the sake of imagery in your deadly poem of life
So, in the interest of my survival
Will you please stop polluting the sounds that I hear
Give the world a breathless hush
Do a course in taciturnity
Spread the joy of quietude around you
Or preferably cast your lot with the Foreign Legion

Death For Sale

Smoking kills
Stop now
For help call 13 Quit
Get your cigarettes here
At bargain prices
Indulge you habit with approval
Because it funds the government
And fulfils schemes of cigarette corporate overlords
Who willingly pay taxes for your demise
Yes
Your deadly habit is approved by us for the profit
Supported glowingly
Even though you may die as a consequence 
Eternal rest managed by the marketplace
So step right up folks
Drugs for sale
Unlimited supply
And the dealer it totally approved
Even given prime location at the marketplace
Hurry now
Less you die of old age
We know you are struggling
Worried about passive smoking with family
And restricted smoking areas
But look at the benefits
No trouble with this purchase
No problem with the fuzz
No standover men for payment
All you need is a click or a tap on
So buy now while the going is good
Make way for happy smoking
Yours sincerely
Mephistopheles Inc

Political Freedom

Free at last
Now I’m elected with a resounding majority
I can twist reality to suit myself
Get out the clichés
Our way of life
For the good of the people
A strong economy
Prosperity for the masses
Border protection
Then stimulate the market
But that is just the beginning
It’s time for me to bind my raison d’être
In hoops of steel
Endorsing the sacred quest:
Money money money
Funds that are fundamental
Finance for the corporate few
Who sponsor our party
Grants for parking lots in our electorates
A purse to build weapons
That create jobs jobs jobs
Nest eggs for developers
Who mutilate our landscape with high-rise monstrosities
Cut back on services
Hospitals aged care and education
To finance global emissions of greenhouse gases
Ah me!
What a golden age this is!
The prospects are so bright for like-minded us
Prosperity is everywhere
And we are ready
To crucify the loudmouths who decry global warming
And globalisation
Yes, that’s it
Let’s face it
Democracy is the utensil of the neoliberal master class

royciebaby

Integrity

Is that image really you?
You
Who have considerable influence on the lives of others
Including me
It’s amazing how many places you visit
In a single day
Even more amazing
Is the presence of cameras there to film you
Are you really a convivial, caring, wise paragon of goodwill?
Or are you nothing
But an icon with manufactured identity?
I hear what you say
Responses flow from you like saliva at a victory feast
You are never wrong
Or at least you never admit to be
When disaster eventuates
As a consequence of what you do or don’t do
The cause is always something beyond your control
Or a folly of someone else
You add abuse to this fallacy
With vituperative curses maligning the alleged miscreant
And utopian daydreams about what you intended to do
Thus you ply your trade, or is it tirade?
And your public identity is far from reality
Your influence lingers like an irksome odour
In spite of what you are
As your schemes attract attention
And catch the ear of the grateful opulent and powerful
Yet everything passes
The triumph you have known
Is tremulous like a dying mirage
Things are changing
Slowly I admit
But time is the enemy of pretence
And favours eventually one precious human virtue
It is integrity

Victims

In a strange land strange thou art;
To her will incline thy heart;
Honour whatso’er the State
Honours, all she frowns on hate.
Sophocles –Oedipus At Colonus

I have done no wrong
My only crime
Was to travel by boat to a foreign land
I am
The last remaining child
Of a family crushed by war
Nine years a prisoner without a voice
Now, in this hostile land
To comply with the harsh laws of a heartless State
I am imprisoned without a trial…
How that time dragged slowly by
Each day a branding iron burning into my soul!
Now
Suddenly I am set free
I know not precisely why
But it seems a sudden political expedient
The sun and the sky are mine again
I am one of a chosen few
Liberated
But still there are others confined, defined as villains
For furtive unclear reasons
Banned from freedom to deter others
Defined I was, as unwanted
Condemned in a land where justice is on suspended animation
Where compassion is a dirty word
And habeas corpus another unwanted intrusion
O how I pity my fellows still confined
For them my heart is broken still
And I will plead for their freedom
As long as this mangled soul of mine is able

The Solitary Wanderer

Alone I am
Doomed to loneliness and isolation
Shunned by a world preoccupied with itself
Like a piece of flotsam in a sea of anguish
No others dare to share my ignominy
As I am contaminated by the sordid deals of life
Cast aside still
Because of follies in my naive youth
By the shallow minds of ruthless people
But I am a thinking spirit in that hostile universe
I understand because I have the gift of reason
The follies of venerated fools are obvious to me
As I am free of the usual distractions
I see, I think, and I discover
The waywardness of those who rule us
The deception is obvious to me
The lies are coloured red on my page of thought
The greed and prestige of the rich
Disturb my every waking hour
But my spirit evinces the joy of being not like them
I see around me everywhere
The approved wreckage of normalised disaster
The slavery of the poor as servants of the moneyed
The burning of the air in defiance of science
The ghastly schemes of the military industrial complex
The madness plunders on and on in defiance of wisdom
Into a chaos of endlessness
The world outside me is under constant threat of disaster
And the strength of the powerful increases every day
Like the rising of a deadly sun
You might suspect despair from me in this lethal situation
Anticipate frustrated pleas for pity
From the lonely soul that I am
But fear not
Though solitary I roam
I still have the power to write a poem

Guilt

So on you go with your life
Coldly indifferent to obvious villainy
With a pious, righteous smile
That is too frequently the way of things
In today’s egocentric world
Yes
If someone is planning an evil deed
Whoever it may be
And you know about it before it happens
Yet do nothing
Guilt is your pseudonym
More important and more sad
Indeed
More worthy of condemnation
Is your indifference to observed suffering
By someone known to you
We all have the courage
To endure other people’s misfortunes
Yes
If someone is crying out in despair
Whoever it may be
And you know about it as it happens
Yet do nothing
Guilt is your pseudonym
Vast is the significance of conscience
There comes a time so often
When you have to make a choice
Awareness is the prosecution
And what you do is the verdict
You must plan wisely dear struggling human
Think long and hard before you decide
To act or do nothing
That person you know
Steeped in villainy or woe
Calls out to you for positive action
What you do or fail to do will determine what you are

Raising A Storm With A Skeptic

Don’t know why
There’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain’t together
Keeps raining all of the time

“Stormy Weather” is a 1933 torch song written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler.

Look at it
Rain falling incessantly
There is no sky
It is hidden by the pummelling drops
Rivers have no banks
Water is everywhere
Rising, rising
Until it grasps everything in aqueous fingers
Houses are submerged
Some float away
Hurtling off downstream
Like flagships of the fleet
Water invades your home sweet home
There’s mud it
It will remain when the water goes
Safety is scarce
Sometimes only a roof will save your life
Some do not find that refuge
The toll grows
Fatalities are mentioned in the news
Sheep and cattle find a watery grave as well
That Prevent Bushfires sign is under water
Cars and horses are marooned on a part of a bridge
Little boats
Search and rescue you if you are lucky
Wrecked cars and a bus or two
Conglomerate haphazardly where the torrent puts them
And an abject skeptic believes suddenly in global warming

royciebaby

Greta Thunberg

Bombs falling!
Water bombs
What deadly chaos!
Just look at that rain
The world is grieving tears in flood
All those dwellings now covered in mud
Wreckage of lives floating down rivers
That old woman was swept away too
Missed the safety her rooftop delivers
Now can you hear Greta Thunberg’s warning
Still echoing in the wind?
Do you remember the abusive scenes
The daggers of contempt hurled at the Greens
About global warming?
Were you listening to the child’s warning
Or the lies and excuses of the polluters
As they indulged their greed?
To hell with you, you entrepreneurial skeptics
You money making scions of animosity
Murderers of science
Assassins of the future
Creating an end to all the wonder and beauty of earth
Your names will linger forever in the graveyard of nature
Your voices will drone into insignificance
Drowned by the cries
Of all creatures pummelled into the agony of death
That goes with a dying planet
Until the future is but a fantasy of hope
A dream withering away to nothing
People gone
All creatures dead
Nothing left but a landscape of stone
Impervious to the wind and hail and endless tempest
You imposed on what was left of mankind

War

War is a racket
A fraud, a swindle by the military industrial complex
Never derived from virtue
Although it loudly claims to be
Bogus danger is a meal for the warmonger
Sprinkled with the pepper of fear
Menace is his confidence trick
Conjured forth by the Yellow Press
As armed conflict sells papers so well
And many viewers buy it
Ares* is a tycoon, a mogul, a dealmaker
Upwardly mobile
With a fortune drawn from death
Look now down the ages
At the wreckage of his rages
Yesterday, today, tomorrow are his raw materials
Lists of the dead enumerate his slaves
So beware bold warrior
Willing to take the lives of others
Ready to give your own
Fortune favours not the brave but the knave
You make money for the bosses as you fill your grave
The entrepreneurs of doom are the architects of gloom
And when you die they’ll bury you where the poppies bloom
So act now and walk boldly away
Turn your back on that tainted golden fleece
Give love to those false enemies
And bankrupt those magnates with peace

*Ares: Greek god of war

Failure

There
It’s happened again
My planning has gone awry
What I did was based on insufficient evidence
I should have known better
Now I hear bells ringing
Alarums offstage
But it’s all in my mind
O how I wish I could undo my mistakes
Just try a different course
And get rid of the turmoil I now experience
Not possible
If the trap fits, wear it
When you get things wrong it’s a hostile universe
It’s all happened before too
That’s a problem
You get so sick of things
What’s the point of going on when life is a wall
A barrier with no way through?
And then you are encircled by other obstacles
Other follies, mean things
Brain pains charged with animosity
Reaching out towards you
So you recoil and shrink away in vain
To be clutched in the ugly fingers of self pity
That crush the juice out of your existence
Hopelessness is in the air now
The sun has no warmth
The sky is a blank canvas
An icy wind makes you long for comfort
As regret dominates your awareness
Like a snarling dog
There is no beginning and no end to your feelings
You simply fade away
Like the last notes of your own requiem

A Poem

A poem knocked on my door one day
And wanted to come in
It was an unexpected visit
Which made me feel quite ill at ease
Strangers don’t taunt me but tend to daunt me
It’s all about uncertainty
Unease concerning true reality
That leaves you distrustful of your own mind
If I opened that door
Would I let the world in?
Change it
Or expose myself to the vulnerability and ridicule
That goes with distorted thinking?
I hovered in the hallway for a time
Hesitant
Trying to select a wise response
A little afraid of my own inadequacy
If I opened that door
Would my words ring true
Share ideas with a harmony of sound and imagery
Or would I simply make a fool of myself
An idiot lost in invalid thoughts?
I pondered long and hard
As many mortals do when unsure of themselves
Would I open that door
Or leave it shut to protect myself from self doubt and fear?
My spirit wavered still
Then
I opened the door
On an impulse for me
Of rising courage
These words are the consequence

Arc of Autocracy

Hostile rival nations

Arc of Autocracy
That is a way of putting it
When you need a slogan that’s easy to remember
It’s brief so therefore memorable
Has a neat rhythm to it to catch the ear
Nicely threatening like an iron curtain
Evocative
Like the Arc de Triomphe
Simplifies a vast human complexity
Into a trite threat
An arrow pointed at the heart of diplomacy and reason
See how it hangs in the air
Like a pungent chemical reaction
A whiff of antagonism
Rhetoric designed to shatter peace of mind
To stir the embers of a warlike fire
And justify investment in the tools of death
See how it draws attention to itself
That stark expression
Diverts your gaze from the embarrassment of other follies
Reaches out to the credulous
With undertones of danger that generate fear
Plus blind allegiance to a questionable cause
It’s so easy
To use such a slanting of news
Stir the mob with calculated conclusions
And other usual suspects…

Dare I say lies?
No
But you can now
Feed mass destruction into your mission statements
And bow to your deal of an economy based on war
With your last remaining recourse
To close diplomacy’s door

royciebaby

A Reason For Failure

You’re an absolute travesty of a human being
A liar
A cheat of the worst order
You’ll do anything for power
Stage photo shots ad infinitum
To enhance and shape your image of virtue
Win notorious allies and invite ‘em
To fund your shady deals
You cannot lie straight in your bed of iniquity
You worm your way into popularity
With false condemnation of your opponents:
Financial inadequacy that doesn’t exist
Taxation virtues for yourself
Blaming your opponents for high taxes
But who told lies about the monstrous GST?
Each sentence you speak is a brawl
You growl like a hungry tiger addicted to ice
Suddenly changing to fake benevolence when convenient
Or necessary for an image of virtue
That’s the PR message you choose to spread
Then you cultivate an enemy
Point out counterfeit links between him and your rivals
And then you invest ridiculously in weapons…
You linger in people’s minds
Because of your frequent press conferences
Aligning yourself with holy places
Or Mount Olympus
As you rave on fluently with fabricated eloquence
Destruction is your deadly mode of debate
You ruthlessly attack with dagger-words
And leave your opposition
Writhing under the sludge of your repartee
As you grind their names into the dust with vicious abuse
All this is your way of gaining spurious control
But might explain
Why you are about to lose the next election

Here Is The News

Here it is
The news you are allowed to hear
According to a ruling by those in control
So Russia has invaded someone
That’s odd
It’s usually America doing this kind of thing
Suitable reprimands against the invaders
From our would be insightful government
Joining the big wigs in overt condemnation
The US, the UK and France
Sanctions coming
That’s it; looks good
Conspicuous morality to create the impression of virtue
But hands off the global payments system
Damage SWIFT and you damage us
Interrupt trade
With disastrous consequences
And we can’t have that
That’s taking rectitude too far
So preach justice without pain to yourself
And our shares will live to fight another day
All right then
What else is there?
What about refugees from the invaded country
O yes
That seems valid
As long as they don’t come by boat
We would have to use the racist alarm bells for that
And overtly but falsely proclaim illegality
And punish innocents for the wrongs of others
Enough of that
It doesn’t sell
Let’s get on with rape, murders and other violence
That will keep the turnstiles turning
The market stay flourishing, the economy still undeniably strong
And all will be right with the world

Stranger

I met a stranger the other day
That is a good word for him, strange
It was in a pub that we met
I was sitting by the bar,
Minding my own business when
He came up to me and offered
To buy me a drink
Hullo
I thought
What’s this character up to?
But I was thirsty
So I ordered a Campari
Though it’s more often a woman’s diversion
When it came we got to talking
I suppose you’d like one from me in return
I said
No way
He replied, a mystic look in his eye
This one’s on me
And so we got to talking at his expense
Life’s been a bit hard lately
He said
Lost my job
Too old, crucified
Lost my house too, repossessed
Now live on a pension with an aged aunt
Rejected virtually by the world, useless
That was when I decided
Every day for the rest of my life
To be useful with a kindness to someone
That’s the reason I am here
That’s the source of your drink
Thanks
I said
Quite suddenly he was gone
I wonder who he was, who on earth he was

In Memoriam

This dying is not all it’s cracked up to be
Lot’s of kind words at your funeral
Your sins somehow seem to be less potent
Decorations tend to give florists noticeable profit
People dress up
As though about to meet their Maker themselves
Pithy details in newspapers
Listing who’s left
Information on the place of interment
And printed versions of your strengths, not weaknesses
Unless they are funny
It costs a lot
If you haven’t subscribed to a plan
For yet another source of profit
The ceremony
Will be run by a cleric or a celebrant
According to your view of life
Then some nice food and drink will put an end to the day
So there you have it
All things standard and correct in their conformity
Now that’s where I come in
I say
What matters are your dreams
What you did or, even more important, tried to do
No matter if not fulfilled
Did you change the world?
No matter, as long as you tried
Yes that is what counts
So here’s what you do when it’s my turn
No ceremony
Notice of death: name and age, nothing else
Then write letters:
To the President of the USA
Begging Americans to stay at home
To the Governor of my state
Seeking a ban depriving all polluters of water
To my Prime Minister
Urging dismissal for lying: one strike and you’re out
To treasury.gov.au
Demanding fines for every global warmer
To ombudsmen everywhere
Ads to disappear, replaced by noticeboards
To education administrators
Air conditioning or windows that open and shut
To town planners
Real scrutiny of developers
To zoo keepers
Release the animals
To CEOs
Corporate profit one million, excess to the poor and needy
Then if you scatter my ashes in a forest of trees,
I will very likely rest in peace

Complicity

The wayward government triumphs
When the good do nothing
If you hear the spin and make no din
You are guilty though not convicted
So beware of the false political boss
Who knows the value of the double cross
Take his words with a grain of sand
And never use the ampersand
To link his name with yours
And pollute your life with his flaws
Every time you condone a villainous deed
Every time you ignore a sin
You too are the one who is guilty
And your life is a rubbish bin
So take this warning now my friend
And strike while the iron is hot
Beware of the overt virtuous smile
Intended to beguile
Look instead for a cunning chink
Aimed to sway the way you think
If dark deeds escape your notice
They’ll imply your virtual complicity
So stay alert and demand the truth
To enjoy an untypical outcome
For truth in that political world is clearly an eccentricity

Deadly Downpour

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked cut down trees
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked brandished coal
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked fracked for gas
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked drilled for oil
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked flaunted their flash cars
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked flew in monstrous planes
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked grew heat in farms for gain
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked crushed the Earth with waste
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

Many days, many days
How the rain kept a falling
The wicked fed their own desires
Then for help kept a calling
Didn’t it rain, yes rain
O my! The rivers are rising now

royciebaby

Advice To The Mature

So
You are old my friend and suffering
From feelings of rejection
Awaken brave soul; it need not be so
For you have the power of experience
A might, a vigour, an energy
Unknown to the poor, misguided ones
Who think youth is the prime of life
Come now
And let us consider the triumph of age
Politicians have crossed your path so many times
You are a bullshit detector
Heard so many lies
You diagnose one
With one look into the eyes of the liar
You have learnt the art of cooking
So junk food is an aberration
Time is not an imposed vicious schedule
But a tool for reading and writing
For remembering the triumphs of the past
For freedom of choice for yet untried adventures
You travel from place to place with calm dignity
Not questing to outdo a speeding rival
You have friends to share your journey
Tried and tested by the years, not paper pledges
As for wisdom, true wisdom
It is not for sale
It is not a bargain in a five and ten cents store
It depends on learning, learning from your mistakes,
Thus, if you have erred my friend
Be of good cheer
Bravo for the lessons your errors have taught you
For now you are ready to live wisely and well
And your place will never be
Among those timid souls
Who have so much still to learn about themselves

One Pet Aversion

There are things I despise now I am old
And have learnt to decode follies better
These days many things tend to speed up my pulse
And incur my disgust to the letter
But one pet aversion I need to speak on
If you’ll lend me a little of your time
It’s concerning one pile of shady deeds
That to me come close to a crime
Political sham is my subject here
I squirm like a worm when I see a poseur
Who claims to be gentle and pious
Rage on the stage at Question Time
With a violent and deadly bias
To spread a vile animosity
And cruel words that, soaked in water,
Would give it a deadly viscosity
Now that is just the beginning
Of this odious charlatan’s sinning
To my endless pain his photo shots
Invade my troubled mind
He will nurse a child unreconciled
Masquerading as kind
He will share his jokes to chosen old folks
As a posture of kindness hangs high
He’ll share a selfie, shake countless hands
False witness no one can deny
When blame comes his way he has much to say
As he sings an innocent song
He will transfer the guilt to someone else
And never admit he is wrong
This above all of his deadly ways
Turns my deference into dust
The funds he receives from the big end of town
Make me totally withdraw my trust
So there, that’s all I have left to say
But I’m free to cast my reparative vote comes election day

Keep Our Nation Safe

Vote for me you compliant listeners
For I keep our nation safe
The only welfare that matters is strength
And a strong economy
Where weapons can be developed
In what are known as defence industries
With jobs jobs jobs
That’s a place where you will find them
Public opinion needs
Fear engendered by the Yellow Press
Plus pathetic climate policy
To avoid the distractions of science
With a lump of coal in your hand
And endless claims of danger without proof
Border security
For example
Sounds so good at election time
And will keep the racists happy
But why bother?
Who or what are we protecting you from?
Why, haven’t you heard?
It’s our opposition, friends with our enemies,
Linked to those hostile forces
A menace to our way of life
Poised on our frontiers to cause us strife
How that warning brings us votes
When repeated every day
Even if it is a fiction
Devised in shady back rooms
So heed me now in this our stark dystopia
I will aways tell the truth except when inconvenient
War we allude to with warlike insistence
So elect me
And let our pliable spin govern your flawed existence

QED

Quod Erat Demonstrandum*

Now
I wish to make a statement:
Australia has no peer
As a dealer in punishment
For refugees who arrive by boat
We have set a pattern,
Now known throughout the globe
As the Australian way
We have become a role model
No flexibility in our modus operandi
No nonsense based on pity
Contaminates what we do
Seeking asylum by boat is not strictly illegal
Legal it is indeed in international law
But denied as such by our dedicated voices
When combined with the people smugglers excuse
And followed by vicious endless detention
This practice stops the boats and wins elections
Gives us strong, stable, united, loving families
All free of unlimited foreign access
Thus we will decide who comes to our country
When and in what way
How dare you say this is racism!
Not so
Just common sense we say
And the votes come flooding in
Unwaveringly
We have worked hard to achieve this
Babies overboard
The Tampa ruthlessness
Cocos and Christmas Islands no longer Australian destinations
And imprisonment for eternity
That is why in our way we lead the world
Quod Erat Demonstrandum

*”Which was to be demonstrated.”

Decrepit Me

Thank you for giving me your seat
Do you travel by train often?
Neither do I
No need to talk loudly
I have very good hearing aids
On your way home I suppose
Hmm. What is your calling?
Aha! Me too
I was also a teacher once
Retired long ago
Some twenty years or so
Still have a brain
Read a lot
Even have a blog: billybaby.com
Not a soul wants me any more
Except for my few followers on the net
Nobody knows I exist
I can still think however
Still reason
And recognise hypocritical political ravings
I’ve seen so many
Could still teach but they wouldn’t hear of it
I’m just left to die
But I’m not cooperating too well
I’ll be ninety in two months
I’m hanging on to life as I still love it
You’re very courteous to me
Thank you, you are a gem
Dissemblers tend to be afraid of me
Because I’ve seen them all
All the idiots from Hitler to Trump
In the presence of fools I can still spill the beans
The has beens
So I remain a threat to the villains of the world
Ah here’s my station
Nice to have met you; take care

royciebaby

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

Minister Of War

You pompous bellicose clown
Ogre of deceit
Constant source of calculated fear
Proclaiming that you keep our nation safe
Safe from what?
Your belligerence?
The enemy you conveniently concoct?
Danger is your mission in life
You see it everywhere
And where it doesn’t exist
You invent it
To justify your vast expenditure on weapons
There’s a lot of profit in them isn’t there?
Money for your friends?
Your chatter is like static on the radio
An endless interruption
A constant flow of deceptive noise
Instead of the gentle logical discourse
Needed to save our world
From the mismanagement of fools
I hear you prattling on
You
With your discourse of fallacy
A malignant tumour of words
Your voice echoes
In the streets of the night
Like the siren of an ambulance
People run for cover when they hear you
For panic is the source of your success
And deception is the footpath on which you tread
Yours is the fame of infamy
And so you will
Of necessity fade away soon
Like intrusive mist in the morning sun

Empty Vessel In Charge

For too many deaths we toll a bell
Yet you say the state is travelling well
COVID kills and gets no mention
While you scheme to divert attention
We are so distraught with bereavement
But all you claim is achievement
You’re a hypocrite and a liar
But you never come under fire
All the things you say
Lead our poor world astray
It’s all a tragedy that denotes
Your need to get the people’s votes
Investment is your dizziness
All for the sake of business
So you seek like a sage to inspire us
And have us us ignore the virus
Then it’s back to work
Which none may shirk
And thus you display your banality
As you foster a quest for normality
Thus people will die
From your pie in the sky
While you bend the rules
And pollute the schools
Declaring our triumph is thrilling
While you mindlessly make your killing
When bringing death to all of us
You’d do better with a blunderbuss
So rave on with your misbegotten tales of glory
The historians of tomorrow will tell a different story

COVID-19

Death is on the march in your country
People are dying while you get on with business
Sadness is everywhere
But you don’t seem to notice it
Indeed you say everything is fine
That grandfather
A mere number in your scheme of things
Will tell no more stories to those children
Who seem to be looking for him everywhere
That young man was a doctor
Who saved many lives but his own
That woman in white
Was the widow of a soldier killed in battle
She died a victim of your war with words
That child is dead
Her parents curse their own survival
That jockey has gone
But the horses he rode survive him
That mother dead
No longer shapes her children’s lives
Why O why are you so inanely cheerful?
You a politician
More concerned with your image
And keeping the wheels of industry turning
Than with empathy
Pause a moment please
But a brief time
And tell the truth about the carnage
Just a whimsey of love for the bereaved
A quiet moment of understanding
This will do so much good
And might even get you re-elected

Politician

Look at you
Are you real or just a media image?
You’re a virtual Iago* with your trickery
A mirage in a desert of iniquity
We find you here, we find you there
A devious depiction everywhere
Always that smiling pretence of yours
Greeting the cameras in a prearranged shot
Chatting with children
Sharing a selfie with two respectful maidens
Washing that woman’s hair in a hairdresser’s basin
Sipping a beer with a fan as the organised cameras click
Riding in a military vehicle like a hero
Using a sewing machine in a clothing factory
Pummelling wool in a shearing shed conveying false awareness
Hammering a nail at a building site
Posing in a hard hat again and again and again
Or as a serviceman on an aircraft carrier
And behind the wheel of everything from a tank to a truck
All this is the way you spend your working hours
To hide the reasons for your inefficiency
What are you, a statesman or a statement?
A messenger or a message?
A reality or a concoction?
As the days of your power pass by
These questions
Are answered not by what you do but by what you are
For you are nothing but an advertisement of a fantasy
A controlled hallucination fashioned in Hell
So beware
More people than you can imagine now know you well

*Iago is a devious, sinister character in Shakespeare’s Othello.

Laughter

Bring on the clowns
The precious souls who make us laugh
In spite of everything
Teach us the humorous side of things
Who often mock the fools who rule us
To build a bridge between despair and hope
They are the important ones: the jesters
Theirs is the gift of laughter
To lessen the scathing power of the wolves around us
So they flounder through impossible situations
Tell us ridiculous tales
Surprise us with a gift of unexpected glee
And while the villains of life abuse us
They mercifully amuse us
Beloved characters stay with us long after they die
Dear friends who lessened the pain
And turned the drought of our existence into rain
Or changed the follies of our superiors into a joke
Our thanks are due to the fools who make us laugh
Don’t be deceived
They may be the wisest of us all
No pretence of virtue
Just an understanding of the obvious truth
Yes comedy is very serious business
It doesn’t work if it’s irrelevant to life
Or persecutes the innocent for fun
But if you are guilty, watch out!
Your schemes will be revealed for what they are: a stunt
Your greed will bring you penury
Pomposity pie in the face
Tyranny servitude in a funny farm
And lies a disastrous sting
There is always a comfort in the droll side of life
As long as your conscience is clear
It’s a funny thing that

royciebaby

Back To School

You are reckless with other human lives
Those deaths cannot be ignored
Yes, the virus is a problem
And too many people are dying
But for you business must come first
There is no point in denying
Parents can’t play their usual role
For they are the core of commerce
Those children prevent this when they stay home
So send them back to school
Bury the dead and test the sick
It’s just a diversionary ruse
Fill the seats in those classrooms
And to hell with the latest dire news
That is the plan with its touch of élan
To keep all enterprise thriving
Who cares that the teachers and staff of each school
May be concerned with surviving
Enterprise first though we fear the worst
It’s the curse a state is conniving
All learning is a blessed thing
But not as important as earning
So spread the word though it’s quite absurd
Keep the wheels of industry turning
Let death have its way the keen planners say
All reason and justice denying
As each day passes fill up the classes
And ignore the wise voices’ decrying
That’s it
Be brave in other people’s danger
And a plague on all their houses*

*Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet 3.1.94

Conrad Sillyman

Conrad Sillyman is a major problem
And he boasts of many friends
He’s formed a political party
But that is where wisdom ends
He’s very rich with money to burn
To fund his political schemes
He gives forth mottos like a braying sheep
Pretending to solve your dreams
He’s very active and thus attractive
To the misfits he gives a commission to
They follow his plans and do all the things
He blandly gives them permission to
False promises are his stock in trade
He expands his fame with illusion
The followers he has all succumb to his wiles
Their loyalty based on delusion
As for honour, truth and virtue
He does not care one iota
He will twist reality and fashion bandwagons
In a desperate appeal to the voter
As for the nation, there is no ovation
For this consummate deceiver
And there is a need, yes dire indeed,
To make sure he’s not an achiever
So rally round the flag folks
Be alert to this man’s threat
Reject his promises and empty words
Before more suns have set
Question his motives whenever he speaks
Demand your right to proof
Watch him crumble and see him falter
As he clumsily stays aloof
And then it will follow
As storms follow global warming
He’ll be cast aside as an empty vessel
An ailment that’s habit forming

Political Fantasy

He’s honest
Tells the truth at all times
Doesn’t use Facebook
Or WeChat to promote his image
Abhors glossy phrases
That focus on himself
Gets no lobbyist funds
Or corporate finance
Respects the poor and the disabled
Wants all medicine to be free
University for all without cost
Seeks an independent corruption commission
No alliances with warlike nations
Has compassion for refugees
Supports local industries
Loves the best not the cheapest
Hates war and promotes peace
And justice for all first nations
Condemns global warming demonstrably
Invests willingly in public education
Calls nuclear submarines a stupidity
Detests media monopolies
Is unheard on talkback-radio
And puts social needs ahead of balanced budgets

Why is he so dejected? you may ask
It’s because he is never elected

Freedom

How dare they impinge on my sanctions
He moans
Take away the free reign our fathers have fought for
He listens to the stentors on radio
On TV and the net
They control his vulnerable mind
They have convinced him
Taught him the lessons of so called freedom
That we all seem heirs to
So
He will not wear a mask
He will not give obeisance to a lockdown
Above all
He will not be vaccinated
And to Hell with your boosters…

Sure, he may well infect other people
Yes, people may die
But that is a fate we all succumb to
Eventually
Give me liberty or give me death
Said the icon of human rights*
Our hero chooses death – death for others
According to his rights
In our world of free competition
He will get on with business
Live his life
According to the rights he has learned
Normality will pat him on the active shoulder
As the right to be himself triumphs
And it shall follow
As morning the night
Funerals will be other people’s business
As the death toll rises

• Said to be Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775.

A Prosperous Society

Everything depends on a prosperous society
You dreamers can dream away your future
Without prosperity
It will all come to nothing
Medicine costs money
Education has a price
Vital border security has a balance sheet
We all must attend to
O the rich get richer and the poor get poorer
So what?
That is the way things are
Wealth will trickle down like honey
As long as the weather stays hot
Preserving liquidity
So if you are poor, it’s just too bad
Dregs get what they deserve
So don’t give me any more of that balderdash
Failures are not getting any of my money
To promote their disastrous ways
With me, if you earn it you can wear it
If not, just bear it
So reflect on the mores, the veritable truths
Of our advanced society
If you don’t know it, stow it
Prosperity is the answer
Wealth for the few, sure
But we will share when it suits us
Because all power is in our political hands
I say again
Everything depends on a prosperous society
And the trickle-down fallacy will keep the masses happy
Progress depends on profit
So jealousy of the rich is misplaced
Money is all that the nation needs
This the poor and the needy, the old and infirm just cannot deny
They must find their way amidst the prosperity of others

Identity

Here I am
Ignore me at your peril
But notice me and things are worse
My ego is very weak
So I align myself with successful people
Whenever I can
I am often embarrassed by my gauche demeanour
But to counter this I shout loudly
In praise of heroes
Condemning failure
With alarming voracity
Booing is commonplace with me
As a token of my disdain
Sometimes I hiss vehemently
To reinforce potently my disapproval
I have no interest in the welfare of others
So I waste no time on manners or courtesy
Life has given me a set of values
That enable me to focus on the true centre of the universe:
Me
Yet I strongly deny narcissism
Your interest in my identity is understandable
It is proudly revealed to you
At the Australian Open tennis championships
I am a spectator

Betty

To the late Betty Shaw, teacher

We walked together you and I
Tears at times
Yet the laughter we shared
Still rings like music around my brain
You
A caring soul
Rearranged things that harmed the innocent
Lightened the burdens of the needy
And drew attention to wisdom
In an unwise world
These are the things teachers do
You
A daring soul
Did not tolerate administration follies
Or shoulder arms to fight for ridiculous causes
But showed the power of love
In a cold and calculating world
These are the things teachers do
You
A sharing soul
Gave knowledge to the dwellers in tomorrow
Found a place in their minds that will never fade
In an awakening world
These are the things teachers do
We talked together you and I
Fears at times
But the words we shared
Still linger as if you were by my side

royciebaby