Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Poems and pondering on all matters health, and on fightingting to defend our NHS.
Teachers say:
Let Daily Mail writers be heroes
Let them walk naked through war zones
Let them battle with an invisible enemy
Let them fall on the battlefield
in even greater numbers than they already have
Safe in the knowledge that they will be
lionised at the Daily Briefing
And that Matt Hancock may
issue a badge in their honour
If you can, find figures that
make Britain look better
than other countries.
If you can't, then explain that
foreigners count differently
from us Brits.
If asked questions
about health and care workers,
say that they are heroes.
If pressed about their PPE, tests,
working conditions or isolation pay,
say again that they are heroes.
They were all in it together,
all in the same boat,
From upper decks to lower,
they'd sink as one or float
But some folk were in first class
and they got out alive,
While most folk were in steerage
and most did not survive
The ship had too few lifeboats,
and the lookout on the prow
Saw the iceberg didn't discriminate,
as the virus doesn't now
Attila the Stockbroker gives his endorsement to CoronaVerses: poems from the pandemic. (Well, he does have a couple of poems in it!)
And now for a passionate entreaty to buy a fantastic book of poetry.
This is no time for politics
for critics or for lobbing bricks
for calling names or stones and sticks
for challenging, for landing kicks
The time's not right for your point-scoring,
rival party leaders' warring
Disagreement's jolly boring,
disrespecting people mourning
Broadcast at five o'clock
to millions of eager viewers
Our hapless hero
tackles the latest crisis
Trying to sound authoritative
but never quite in control
His spivvy mate
usually gets the better of him
It's not Railway Cuttings
it's Downing Street
It's a situation
but it's not comedy
.
.
.
Ten thousand people have not lost their lives.
They did not leave them behind
or forget where they put them
They did not misplace them.
Their lives were taken.
personal protective equipment
proves particularly effective
preventing pandemic excretion
polluting public environments
profit pursuers expect
priority, private enterprise
prevails: purchasing essentials
proves prohibitively expensive
production postponed, exhausted
public protectors endangered
political patent expired
pay packets empty