Friday 24 February 2012

Our Blood Runs Red

A poem I wrote last year inspired by the unfortunate political situation we find ourselves in.

Laissez faire
Is that synonymous with I don't care?
The mantra of I'm alright jack and lady muck,
for people who really don't give a fuck, about others. 

Cameron's concern is protecting big business to hell with the poor,
removing state intervention so the rich get more.
Policies to make London a playground for the wealthy to have fun,
designed to get rid of the poor, the immigrants the northern scum
Widen the north south divide send them back where they belong,
he'll probably erect a wall a hundred miles long.
People gasped when they put up the wall in Berlin,
but capped housing benefit and 80% of market value for council rent is where it will begin.
Geographical social eugenics it's plain to see,
using the cuts to justify tory policy. 

He has no concern for the greater good,
just his political legacy and doing as Thatcher would.
Is he Thatchers love child, or Rosemary's baby?
A tinpot robot product of the Iron Lady.
I'd say there was a lump of coal where there should be a heart,
but an office stapler seems a more fitting part.

Slowly dismantling public services and the NHS,
cutting staff and performance targets to make it a mess.
In the end people will cry out for an alternative solution,
and he can swoop in with his privatization resolution.

Allowing the bankers to have their bonuses just rubs salt in the cuts,
while we struggle to get by and out of our financial ruts.
No concept of life for the masses,
the daily struggle for basics for the working classes.

And where's the diversity in government the representation,
the men at the top represent about 5% of the nation.
The educated, rich with opportunities and choice, 
the protected, connected the ones with a voice.

Everyone has choice the tories would say,
but what little girl would choose to grow up to be a prostitute one day.
Choices are limited by things beyond our control,
people are affected by self fulfilling prophecy and what society says is their role.
We're heading down a scary path,
where striving for a fair society will be a thing of the past.

Cameron says "fairness is giving people what they deserve, and what they deserve is based on how they behave".
based on that analogy you really don't deserve to be Prime Minister Dave.
A former member of the Bullingdon club, 
where money means there's no consequence for behaving like a thug.
Good behavior being defined by the powerful as they dictate,
yet they preach to stand for democracy and less intervention from the state.

And how can he dare to say he likes the Smiths,
when everything he stands for is the antitheses.
Morrissey's song Margaret on the Guillotine should have made their views on politics clear,
Dave probably didn't do his research and just said it to further his career.
Widen his appeal like his hug a hoodie, vote blue go green disgrace,
I don't know how he did those campaigns and kept a straight face. 
"Stop saying you like the Smiths, I forbid you" Johnny Marr tweeted,
since then Cameron's love for the band has not been repeated.

As my 94 year old nana said, don't be fooled they don't care about you,
our blood runs red their blood runs blue.







Sunday 19 February 2012

All Born Equal

I performed this poem at Sound Women in Huddersfield in December 2011, it's called All Born Equal and is about two very different experiences at the beginning of life.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Call Centre

This poem was inspired by my days working in a call centre many moons ago, nearly all offices I have worked in since have contributed to the content of this poem in some way.

A YouTube video of me at Sound Women gig Huddersfield Dec 2011

Saturday 11 February 2012

The year 2111 - I wrote this for the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day 2011

The cabinet will be awash with women  representing the masses,
with women from all races, abilities, sexualities and classes.
They will run the country with emotion and passion,
and maybe, if they want, a great sense of fashion.
Communication will aid democracy,
compassion will be law and listening the key.
These traits will be valued and not seen as weak,
attributes to strive for an characteristics to seek.

The media will present a greater representation of beautiful,
no longer will we be bombarded with airbrushed, unrealistic, plastic and dull.
Young women would have more to aspire to than being a celebrities wife,
spending hours tanning, plucking, shaving and dieting would be seen as a waste of a life.

MTV would play videos of the female equivalents of the Rolling Stones,
haggard rocked out grannies all wrinkled skin and bones.
Talent would not have to be tested or proved,
because barriers to opportunities would all have been removed.
Women could be themselves without having to conform,
and a woman in any job would be seen as the norm.

Women wouldn't feel judged for doing what is their right,
like wearing what they want and walking alone at night.
We wouldn't be bound by concepts of what women should be,
our choices in life would be valued, respected, expected and free,
Being called a girl won't be an insult to men,
but a compliment they would hope to be called again.

Sisters around the world won't be raped, beaten and vilified,
abused, humiliated, oppressed and petrified.
The current abuse of women would be unheard,
and the concept of violence against women would seem absurd.
Our bodies would be our own, no one could tell us.
No one could own us or rule us or buy us or sell us.
This is my dream for women in the next hundred years.
A life of endless possibilities and a life without fear.