We turned them back in Walthamstow
Then turned them back again
We turned them back so hard
That we made the News at Ten
So come the Farage Riots
In our thousands, we held fast
In Walthamstow, across the land
We said, they shall not pass
Tag: poetry
Mickey Mouse vs. Elon Musk
(How corporate greed beats ethics every time)
The great replacement got blue ticked
Mickey screwed his courage to the sticking place
Switched off; that’s antisemitic
Elon doubled down with a say it to my face
Donald got elected, Elon’s main squeeze
Now on the populist power track
Easy as baiting with a piece of cheese
Mickey came scurrying back
Mary and Joseph
Mary
She pulled her shawl tighter around her
A mother should never have to outlive her child
Be there at the beginning and the end
She thought about her ex
A gentle man, good with his hands
Who never questioned her unexpected pregnancy
There’s nothing more working class, he’d laughed
Than giving birth in a barn
She pulled her shawl tighter around her
And remembered the starlight
The smell of fresh hay
And the warm comfort of the animals
On the day that he was born
Joseph
I’d have made a better job of that manger
He watched over his new-born son
One day, when he’s older
I’ll teach him to saw straight and to nail true
To value form as much as function
And be the master of his craft
But it wasn’t to be
They couldn’t survive the recriminations
Should they have kept him from the temple?
Who put those revolutionary ideas in his head?
He thought about her in the starlight
The smell of fresh hay
And the warm comfort of the animals
On the day that he was born
The Man Who Built The Burning House
The man who built the burning house
rubs his hands, his fingers laced
The order for a million more
is ready to be placed
He flexes fists and wrists
like he’s choking the supply
He knows the tricks that keep demand
and profit-making high
New homes for all, the promises
of ministers and kings
The man who built the burning house
is waiting in the wings
Henry and the Tractors
Henry parked his tractor in Whitehall
Turned to the camera to explain
My lifestyle is under threat, he said
It’s causing my accountant great pain
The only way to farm this land, he said
Is if your father was a farmer too
And if your granddad owned it before him
Then farming’s what you’re born to do
Like being a millionaire, I thought
The bit that was going unsaid
Why’s the right to own and work the land
Restricted to the born and bred?
Henry and the tractors were holding up traffic
Like Just Stop Oil in tweed caps
Barbour coats and green wellies
A Reform UK uniform, perhaps
Like mustard-trousered Farage
Defending the interests of his class
Henry parked his tractor in Whitehall
What a fucking arse
A Better Mousetrap, Part 3
Build a better mousetrap, people said
And the world will beat a path to your door
So, we built a better mousetrap, like they said
And the fat cats beat a path to our door
People bought our mousetrap, happy to choose
Between a cheaper, worser mousetrap
And a dearer, better mousetrap
That everyone was giving rave reviews
The fat cats were happy, ‘cause they had shares
In our mousetrap firm, but also in theirs
It turns out that moneymen never have to choose
If you have shares in everything, you never lose
But one day they said, those worse mousetraps
You’re gonna have to sell them for more
And the firm that makes the better mousetraps
Will have to make them cheaper than before
Mousetraps soon were all the same price
And none of them were very good at catching mice
But in the boardroom, there was little concern
The fat cats were getting a better return
Now people often could be heard to say
Mousetraps were so much better in my day
Now a mousetrap doesn’t even do what it says
And everything’s just so expensive nowadays
We told the fat cats that people were sad
With worse and better mousetraps both
The fat cats said, well they really should be glad
Because we’ve given them economic growth
Economic growth, they said’s of high import
That’s why it’s always daily in the news
That bit that you ignore just before the sport
It’s the measure that all governments use
Economic growth, that’s all well and good
Economic growth, well that’s nice
But if economic growth is so important
How come it only benefits the mice?
The River
The river slapped against the dock,
unpleasantly,
incessantly.
We stood under the bridge
where Walworth once
had Tyler’s head displayed.
A revolt betrayed
by a misplaced faith in kings.
It’s not enough, she said,
to pull men from the river.
We must also go upstream
to see who pushed them in.
Upstream, the palace,
its sunlit terraces,
its privileged view.
We knew.
As Tyler before us knew too.
Good King Amesbury
The moon shone bright, the frost was cruel
He lived a good league hence
But here to gather winter fuel
Lest he should burn the forest fence
When Wenceslas he did espy
And cried out Sire, why walk you by
And no longer bring me pine logs hither
Ye, who would bless the poor
A Christian man, good and sure
Whose allowance he’s content to wither
Wenceslas, full of grace
Struck the peasant in the face
Then struck again as he lay prone
Admonishing, leave me alone
Therefore, English men be sure
Without rank possessing
Question Wenceslas’s care
And you’ll receive his blessing
Tina and My Pillow Guy
Tina believed the Big Lie
Now Tina’s gonna have to let time go by
‘Cause Tina broke in to the voting machine
To try to prove that Donald’s hands were clean
But Donald’s hands are dirty as hell
Now Tina’s hands are dirty as well
Now Tina’s gonna have to let time go by
‘Cause Tina believed the Big Lie….(and My Pillow Guy)
Tina and My Pillow Guy
Tina and My Pillow Guy (and the Big Lie)
Tina and My Pillow Guy
Will have to say goodbye
Tina believed in My Pillow Guy
Now Tina’s gonna have to let time go by
‘Cause Tina broke into the voting machine
To try to prove that Donald’s hands were clean
But Donald’s hands are dirty as hell
And Mike’s hands are dirty as well
Now Tina’s gonna have to let time go by
‘Cause Tina believed in My Pillow Guy
Tina and My Pillow Guy
Tina and My Pillow Guy (and the Big Lie)
Tina and My Pillow Guy
Will have to say goodbye
Tina and the Big Lie
Tina believed the Big Lie
Now Tina’s gonna have to let time go by
Tina broke into the voting machine
To try to prove that Donald’s hands were clean
But Donald’s hands are dirty as hell
Now Tina’s hands are dirty as well
And Tina’s gonna have to let time go by
‘Cause Tina believed the Big Lie
