Newzak

I think I’ve been lis’ning to far too much news –
For though it is vital we learn of out-there,
It leaves me frustrated, and flustered and grated,
I’m hating, debating, yet never quite sated,
And thoroughly impotent, hopeless to care –
As yet more disasters are grimly amassed,
With each one more urgent and loud than the last –
Till headlining news becomes hutch-lining olds of the past.

I think I’ve been lis’ning to far too much news –
It just isn’t good to be quite so aware.
It leaves me intruded (in which I’ve colluded) –
I’m brooding on feuding, informed yet excluded,
And thoroughly cynical, drunk with despair –
As yet more injustice, or just kiss-and-tells,
All rage between grimmest and tritest of hells –
And worst is the knowledge that this is precisely what sells.

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

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.”