The High Cost of Knowledge

pandora
detail from Pandora by John waterhouse

The High Cost of Knowledge

Life is full of spoilers – there’s no way to avoid them,
However much we try to shut our ears and plug our eyes.
Upon the ether, through each chink –
These rumours reach us out-of-sync.
Life is full of spoilers – we just have to abide them
They leap out of the bushes and they creep up in disguise.
It’s rarely cruel, it’s never fate,
But sometimes warnings come too late.
We’re creatures with a mouth and with a will,
And if the price for censorship is never letting banter slip,
I’d rather keep the quips, for good and ill.

Life is full of spoilers, from those who steep the boilers,
And don’t cut back their stoking to preserve some heat for later –
And from these spendthrifts, gossip comes:
Sometimes whispers, sometimes drums.
So life is full of spoilers, and unintended foilers –
Annoying, yes, but don’t assume each blabber is a traitor –
With so much on the telegraph,
It’s no surprise we blow the gaff.
We are a talky species, let’s recall,
And if the price for ignorance is sharing no more than a glance,
I’d rather take my chance and hear it all.

Agit-Proper

poster

Agit-Proper

To arms, comrades !
And hands and feet –
Let’s take this to the street,
Across the land,
By gang and squad and band.
Mile by mile,
And brick by brick,
We’ll build and style the future quick,
We’ll sling the clay to see what sticks,
We’ll string the wire,
We’ll raise the spire,
We’ll kick the soil to drain the mire.
Let’s use our teeth to smile,
Our claws to pick,
Our boots to walk on fire.
Comrades !  Raise the alarms
In foundries and farms,
To lay down our guns
And ready our arms !

Referendum

ballot boxes

Referendum

A vote was held.
For all we say we do not like
The outcome it has spelled –
A vote was held.

It’s too late now to criticise,
Or grumble how the populace
Should leave such matters to the wise,
Or how they fell for clever lies.

Or claim opinion has moved,
And new votes must be undertook
To catch the latest public mood
To verify what polls have proved,
To show our ranks have swelled.
But no.  A vote was held.

If we should challenger ev’ry time
A vote should happen not to chime
With what we thought it ought to say,
We’d be about the booths all day !
And though the outcome couldn’t be much closer,
Nor, to our outlook, grosser,
One side had a slightly upper hand:

Their hand.
So there you go, and here we are, you understand ?
The rule of law is far more precious
Than a little politics.
A cynic’s tricks are less than gracious,
And the outcome must prevail –
To undermine the vote would be betrayal !
We cannot say “we won’t obey,
For just this once, but never more –
Just once, and then we promise that we shall !”
Too late to slam that stable door
When pitchforks march upon the Mall.

The day was theirs – the future too, for now.
It has to be this way.
Don’t pull the “it was only to advise” –
You know that’s lies, to disallow their say:
We asked them what they wanted,
All these working-hard civilians,
And on the day, undaunted,
So they told us in their millions !
Advisory ?  Then take advice:
It’s time to pay the price.

A vote was held, a course was set,
And even though we might regret,
The threat that half our nation has rebelled,
So be it, let it be.
For we, who claim to be their betters, lost the bet.
And if the future asks us why,
We can at least still meet its eye, and help it see:
“A vote was held –
And far, far better this, than anarchy.”

It’s All Good Stuff

architecture buildings bus cars
Photo by Burst on Pexels.com

It’s All Good Stuff

Hear the dozen tongues that trip
Around the top of ev’ry bus –
They’re London’s latest membership,
As once the immigrants were us.
Not whence we came, but chose to dwell
Is what defines our each success –
And though we are our past as well,
It comes to matter less and less.
We’re changing daily, ev’ryhow,
As our subconscious makes its choice –
So we belong to London now,
It’s in our eyes and in our voice.

Forever Second Place in a Beauty Contest

gray monopoly game board
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Forever Second Place in a Beauty Contest

An evening in with friends ?
Looking for a game ?
No not, repeat, do not suggest
Monopoly – the game that never ends !
And even though it takes all night,
It always seems to play the same –
With one much richer than the rest,
Though still there is no end in sight.
We’ve bought up ev’ry street and station,
Built up ev’ry damn hotel,
Yet still we never reach cessasion –
Guys, I swear, they must play this in Hell !
Monopoly – it never ends –
Just peters out to boredom
At the pointlessness of taking part.
So dog or boot, let’s make amends:
Let’s ditch these streets, not hoard them –
And let’s stop now, before we even start.

It should be pointed out, however, that we’re all playing it wrong:

– Have to go round once before buying any property ?  Not in the rules.

– Collect £400 for landing exactly on Go ?  Wrong.
– If you roll a double, you can ignore the square you land on and roll again ?  Nope.
– You can’t collect rent while in prison ?  Actually, you can.

– All fines go in the middle until someone lands on Free Parking ?  Uh-uh.

The original rules worked to restrict the money supply.  Most house rules, while making the utterly pointless squares of Go and Free Parking actually interesting (and why can’t we think of something for Just Visiting as well ?), do the opposite.    But even when played correctly, it still has no end-point.  So go and play Wingspan instead…

Oh, and why are the Chance and Community Chest decks identical to one another ?  Oh, wait, I get it – it’s to symbolise how lazy and unimaginative corporations are.  You know, the more I think about it, the more I reckon Elizabeth Magie’s original intention of designing a game to demonstrate the evils of capitalism is still doing a sterling, if subliminal, job…

Scholastic Surgery

auditorium benches chairs class
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Scholastic Surgery

We can rebuild you
Stronger, faster, smarter –
Fumigate your mildew,
Galvanize and gild you,
Be your head-starter, thought-charter,
Wisdoms-of-the-age-imparter –
Enskill you and fulfil you,
As we inkwell and enquill you.
Your eyes shall be retooled, de-fooled,
And sculpted with that glint that marks the schooled.

A Great British Tradition

beach.jpg

A Great British Tradition

The banks all held a holiday, with ev’ryone invited:
These pin-striped bowler-hatted gents were thoroughly delighted
To paddle in the briny sea with crowds of day-trip workers,
And hike the green and pleasant hills and join the mansion-lurkers.
They greeted bakers, plumbers, teachers, ev’ryone from ev’ry measure –
Watched the doctors, taxmen, postmen, ev’ryone about their leisure.
’Cept for those, of course, who had no need for such a lazy day,
Because these reckless banker shits had stolen all their jobs away.

News Snooze Cues Muse Schmooz

selective focus photography of two orange drinks
Photo by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com

News Snooze Cues Muse Schmooz

I met her in the silly season:
Ace reporter Lisa Leeson –
Met her in the Summer, as it moved from high to late.
She said she newly had the time
For chilling with a gin and lime,
And meeting with a stranger for a secret steamy date.
Until the proper news arrived,
She churned-out waffle, faffed and skived,
To dodge the z-list luvvie-spotting at the village fete.
And so we spent the Summertime
Away from wars and wonks and crime,
And nothing went on happening in law and trade and state.

Not a love-nest, romp, or threesome,
Just myself and Lisa Leeson,
While the ever-greedy presses must procrastinate –
And so we joined our choice of queues,
With not a thought to check reviews,
For visits to the restaurants, the movies, and the Tate.
But Summer changed to Autumn brown,
And cooler breezes teased the town,
And she could hear the calling of the headlines and the hate.
So Lisa Leeson bid farewell,
And broke our silly Summer’s spell
By quitting idle drifting for a world that would not wait.

Sunnis & Cartoonies

Mohammed
detail from Portrait of the Prophet Muhammad riding the Buraq, 1820-30 Indian

Sunnis & Cartoonies

Tell your children, tell your spouse,
Use a biro, use a mouse,
Ev’rybody in the house –
Doodle-up Mohammed !
Take a minute, take a day,
When at your lunch or at your play,
Ev’rybody, sketch away !
Scribble-down Mohammed !
Draw his eyes and draw his nose
Draw his fingers, draw his toes
What’s he look like ?  No-one knows !
Draw, you all, Mohammed !

Draw him as an diplomat,
Draw him as a Knicks fan,
Draw him as an acrobat,
Draw him as a stick-man,
Draw him seemly, draw him sleazy,
Draw him dreamy, draw him cheesy,
Draw him any way you pleasy
Draw your pen but not your blade.
Draw to show our common sense
Or draw to show we take offence
Or draw to show they try to censor.
Draw to show we’re not afraid.

Tell the Arabs, tell the Brits,
Use your pencils, use your wits,
Ev’rybody, Bics not blitz !
Don’t let’s awe him, let’s all draw him !
Ev’ry colleague, guest and mate,
Join the party, bring debate.
Ev’rybody – love not hate !
Come, let’s draw Mohammed !