Mrs Wales Is Having A Baby
Submitted by Janine on
There once was a princess called Kate
Who noticed her period was late
Each time she vomited
The media commented
And worshipped the future head of state
My Poems
Having written and performed as The Big J in the 1980s, Janine started again in 2014, after a brief interlude of around a quarter of a century.
Froms sonnets to villanelles, limericks to ballads, the occasional rap and plenty of straightforward rants, serious and humorous and sometimes both, here is Janine's verse.
Janine's poems have been published in numerous poetry and other journals and websites, including Algebra of Owls, South Bank Poetry, the Daily Mirror, PUSH, Hour of Writes, Proletarian Poetry, Confluence Medway, Screaming Violets, Poetry24, Solidarity, Stand Up and Spit, Hastings Independent, Freedom, Women’s Fightback, the Morning Star, Rising and TenFootCity; and in anthologies Spies4Life, Poems for Jeremy Corbyn, Justice: Poems for Grenfell Tower.and Ashes to Activists
An Ode to Tube Cleaning
Submitted by Janine on
A right filthy job is Tube cleaning
We slave while the bosses are preening
We work night and day
No pension or sick pay
And the wages are truly demeaning
But cleaners won’t let them attack us
Harass us, track us and sack us
On protest and picket
We’ll tell them where to stick it
And expect all our workmates to back us
Justice For The 33
Submitted by Janine on
Throughout 2013, RMT members fought a struggle for the reinstatement of 33 agency workers who lost their jobs when their agency was (rightly) kicked off the Underground. I wrote this poem in support of that campaign. Eventually some, but not all, of the workers got permanent jobs on London Underground.
We Three Kings
Submitted by Janine on
A variation on a festive favourite - to the tune of We Three Kings Of Orient Are:
We three kings of austerity be
IDS, Gideon and David C
Finding ways
To make you pay
For capitalism's misanthropy
Oh-oh
Cuts by daytime, cuts by night
Cuts that hurt and cuts that bite
It's so thrilling
To save each shilling
It truly is a lovely sight
Michael Gove Is Coming to Town
Submitted by Janine on
More of a Christmas carol than a poem, dedicated to our later, unlamented Education Secretary, and set to the tune of Santa Claus Is Coming to Town:
You'd better not hope, dream or aspire
Stay in your place, you won't get any higher
Michael Gove is coming to town
You'd better brush up on traditional skills
Caning and Latin and military drills
Michael Gove is coming to town
While Bishops Washed Their Frocks
Submitted by Janine on
Shortly before Christmas 2012, the Church of Engalnd voted not to allow women to become bishops. The decision to allow women bishops - with some qualification - was taken around two years later.
To the tune of While Shepherd's Watched Their Flocks ...
While bishops washed their frocks by night
All seated on the ground
An edict from the Synod came down
"It's still just men allowed"
Bad Mayor Boris
Submitted by Janine on
To the tune of Good King Wenceslas:
Boris Johnson once looked out
Across the River Tha-ames
In one direction poverty
The other gold and ge-ems
People slept on streets that night
Though the frost was cru-el
And pensioners in freezing flats
Who can't afford the fu-u-el
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