International

I'm doing a bit of cash-in-hand work
in a specific and limited way
I’m nicking some pens as a justified perk
in a specific and limited way

I’m short on cash so I won’t pay my bills
in a specific and limited way
I’ll slip in some extras as I go through the tills
in a specific and limited way

"When the looting starts,
the shooting starts."

But when did the executing start?
When did the racist recruiting start?

And when will the prosecuting start?

That will be when the suits will start
elocuting and refuting parts,
disputing and diluting parts

Computing charts
and polluting hearts

First came the plume from hangar twelve
Cellphone cameras swung around
and pointed to preserve, for fear
that even worse might happen here

Next there came the second blast
Flattened buildings, shattered glass
raining pain on those not dead already

He was socially close, untamed, unmasked
His magic medicine uncasked
He didn't care so he never asked

He'll brush it off, he's so athletic
The tough guy, leading man aesthetic
No chance it makes him empathetic

He'll rise above like Kilimanjaro
Always survive like the Cult of Skaro
Covid can't hurt Bolsonaro

When my team lost to a goal in the last five minutes of the match from a free kick that should never have been given and got relegated and my face went down with them, you didn't tell me that all football clubs matter.

The white
power cap
on the top
of the head
of the cop
with his knee
on the neck
of the man
on the floor
by the pass-
enger door

Who said please
I can't breathe
and who called
for his mum
stopped responding
went numb
but still
bore the knee
and the weight
and the hate
of the cop
who still
wouldn't stop

They held a peaceful protest
People didn't notice
Nothing changed

Then they rioted and burned
The world watched and learned,
views exchanged

The respectable people said
Their cause is just,
but why must they riot?

Why don't they hold
a peaceful protest?

'ScoMo Must Go!' chants demand the end of Scott Morrison's tenure as Australian Prime Minister. But Janine's poem argues that it is not just ScoMo who must go, but "Every climate change denier, Neoliberal vote for hire ...".

"I believe in a fair go
for those who have a go ...
If you're having a go
you'll get a go."
Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, 2019

Everyone must surely know
That Sco- Mo- must- go!
Liberals reap what Liberals sow
Sco- Mo- must- go!
The winds of change will surely blow
Sco- Mo- must- go!

But so must ...

There is an increasing number of companies which explicitly employ autistic people, promising to value their work and provide suitable working conditions. This has been widely welcomed.

But what are the experiences of autistic workers in these companies? 

On this website, I will be hosting guest posts to give a platform to these workers and allow people to see behind the headlines.

The first is from V, in Paris.