Poetry

Trump set their touchpaper alight

They marched there tooled up for a fight

They're so convinced that they are right

And most still live - because they're white

After Come to Milton Keynes by Paul Weller

Me and the rest of the company grunts, we
know for sure that we are being used
as fodder for the god of profit, doff the cap to
ownership, it seems we’re whipped to chase
targets and schemes instead of our dreams.

China jails citizen journalist for Wuhan reports

Four years in jail for citizen reporter
Who spread the news from virus-struck Wuhan
Her mother cries in court to lose her daughter
She showed the world the sickness, did Zhang Zhan
So ominous the charges that they brought her
For breaking China’s free expression ban
Their stricken morals under smoking rubble,
‘Picking quarrels and provoking trouble’

After A Stone’s Throw Away by Paul Weller

News just in
of last year’s protests starting again in Chile
And hundreds of thousands massing in
the city streets for women’s rights in Poland
Burned-out squatters turning out in Johannesburg

After Earth Beat by Paul Weller

Her banner has a planet on, she’s
carrying resistance and insisting that the
government takes action for a new
start for a cleaner, greener future from today.

We're hiding from Storm Bella,

me and my lockdown crew

The kid, our pets, my fella,

we're hiding from Storm Bella

while listening to Paul Weller

and watching Doctor Who

We're hiding from Storm Bella,

me and my lockdown crew

Janine Booth performing at the online Punk for the Homeless gig on 6 April 2020. Poems: - Disaffected Middle-aged Women - The Girl from Clapham - Why Can't You Just Be Normal? - Thoughts and Prayers - This Place - Stonewall Was a Riot - Night Tube - Night Tube (Covid-19 remix) - Dispensible Other - Wherefore Art Thou, Capitalism? - Clap For Carers - Unskilled - Unpublished Author - Stay the Fuck Home - Mostly Hating Tories

On 27 September 2020, Janine Booth broadcasted an hour-long show on Facebook Live, tackling the two biggest issues of the year: the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality.

After Liza Radley by Paul Weller

While others despise her, Liza –
that’s short for Elizabeth – Radley,
I madly admire her, I see
her dance and I yearn for the
stance and the world of the girl
labelled wrong, who has grown with
a mind of her own and I long
not to be scared and to dare to do that with my hair.

Opening presents, singing songs,

Telling Christmas stories,

Spreading seasonal goodwill

And, mostly, hating Tories