Tag Archive: insurrection


Rotor Blades

Filed under: Poetry, Political — Leave a comment
August 6, 2009

Police helicopter snarls and roars
breaks the stillness of the night
the searchlight beam that pans the streets
picks out those who took to flight

do we know for whom they seek here
do we care about their fate
do we presume it’s lawless fools
that destroy our peace when it’s so late

Are we sated by the CCTV
that is ever present here
do we really believe only the bad
are the ones who have to fear?

Do you think that 40 days
is acceptable incarceration
for those deemed public enemies
without charge or explanation

or do you cling to fragile tenets
that you’ve not done any wrong
and that your passport will satisfy them
should they ask you to come along

regard those who before you
have felt such confidence
that it shouldn’t take too long
for them to prove their innocence

but you don’t have to be guilty
to constitute a threat
perhaps ‘cause of what you’re reading
or the people you have met

the helicopter passes now
wasn’t you that they were after
go back now to your TV drama or
sitcoms artificial laughter.

Song Of The Day ~ Mazzy Star – Into Dust

Tags: , , ,
Comment

Dark Horizons

Filed under: Poetry, Political — Leave a comment
August 4, 2009

It is easy to dissent when the danger is in the shadows
when the consequences are not looking you in the face
they watch you now from behind desks and computer screens
and make their notes in secret without public trace

this is an uneasy period of silent menace
a time of looking at the grey clouds in the sky
the knowledge that there may be greater darkness yet to follow
that may be precipitated within the twinkling of an eye

I cannot say I will be brave if they should come for me
I cannot promise not to buckle under stress or pain
I can only hope that courage will be looked on as having got me there
and that the courage of others might help get me out again

But I would rather live in fear and be able to look myself in the mirror
than be ignorant of what this world is doing to the people who walk the street
and as I sit in comfort as many thousand others
blessed by birth not to be one of those millions who have nought to eat

the age is coming where we will be defined by actions
and we shall see who chooses to stand up and fight
but I suspect the Western world is populated by far too many
who think that they will not be woken by them coming in the night

it seems far-fetched to believe such horror could be just around the corner
we are used to reading such atrocities in the annals of the history books
but ask yourself now were you one of the dreaded asylum seekers
whether you might not receive those same historical dirty looks

Sleep well my friends and think not who has their finger on the button
dwell not upon those in darkened corridors who pull the strings
but keep perhaps in mind to be careful what you say in conversation
for will you really know who’s listening next time the phone rings?

Song Of The Day ~ The Wedding Present – Brassneck

Tags: , , ,
Comment

Cruel Britannia

Filed under: Poetry, Political — Leave a comment
July 3, 2009

We slide headlong to recession
voyeurs of social oppression
watching politics trangression
have none the stomach to fight back

as they pass laws that oppress
leave the healthcare in a mess
the balance of wealth they’ll not redress
but receive precious little flack

education becomes training
and it’s acid that its raining
why are none of you complaining
is it not time to attack

do you think you’ll have a pension
at the end of fiscal tension
do you think they’ll even mention
when they stab you in the back

watch it disappear at your cost
and when you realise what you’ve lost
on the scrapheap you’ll be tossed
in their cutting of the slack

I’m no soothsayer or a sage
it’s just clear on every page
the destruction of this age
Time to don the cloak of black

Song Of The Day ~ Editors – The Racing Rats

Tags: , , , ,
Comment

The Beginning Is Nigh

Filed under: Poetry, Political — Leave a comment
June 29, 2009

Extraordinary rendition and covert operations
homogeneity of news from the television stations
hegemony of politics drifting ever further right
policemen breaking doors down in the middle of the night

Hatred for asylum seeker and economic refugee
as the politicians fight for who is most like the BNP
Terrorism, Islam, slow pull-out from Iraq
but stop their oil again old son and you know that they’ll be back

Unemployment rising and the economic crunch
bank employees laid off with directors out to lunch
government pisses taxes in billions down the drain
and yet it still has not derailed their pension gravy train

The banking sector cancered by the tumor of its greed
whilst the great majority scratch around for no more than chicken feed
demonstrators asking for them to hear what we have said
the answer comes from police files as to why a man is dead

Labour and the Tories fighting over right-wing ground
and if you read the media you’d think there were no other sound
dissent consigned to history in this post-protesting age
newspapers running populist bile and adverts on every page

It’s time a new day dawned and we had a system we might trust
and one that comes before this one has reduced us all to dust
it’s not too late to make that change, remember Rosa Parks
proof if it were needed of when courage leaves its marks

And if you stand beside me friend you know we aren’t alone
and life for us is more than being a capitalist’s drone
the power we will have together brings the system to its knees
we can start by removing Sellafield and replacing it with trees

Song Of The Day – Portishead – Sour Times

Tags: , , , , , ,
Comment