Four Lines That Rhyme

Roses are red
Violets are blue
If you're a Tory
I'm not snogging you

You sob for love lost from the labouring class
With a heart that's so heavy, so bitter your tears
But the love was not lost in the ten months just past
But was lost in the previous twenty-odd years

When I was young and full of rage
I hated Tories to my core.
But now I've reached a gentler age
I hate the fuckers even more.

He blew his whistle, Tory Zac
The dogs came running in a pack
Instead of slavering at his whim
They growled and barked and savaged him

David says if folk don't speak the language
They have to leave the country - go and pack!
But how's he going to deal with all the anguish
Of monolingual ex-pats flooding back?

Respect for war dead is not proved
By the depth of bow you're showing
But by the mountains you have moved
To stop their numbers growing.

​This poem was included in the anthology Poems for Jeremy Corbyn (Shoestring Press, 2016)
​and published by the Daily Mirror in September 2016.

I'm sure it really is a pain
Waiting ages for a train
But if you want a true ordeal
Ask the "migrants" how they feel

I tried to explain to a ten-year-old tyke
Why we bother with spelling and grammar
You can knock in a nail with your shoe if you like
But you’re better off using a hammer

I only have one resolution
I can't be arsed with diets or owt
If we can't have a revolution
At least let's kick the Tories out

Four quatrains inspired by The People vs PFI conference on 1 November 2014:

I

PPP is Public-Private
Partnership - but how?
The same way steak's a partnership
Of a butcher and a cow.

II

PFI is Private Finance
Initiative, but still there's
One more thing that it stands for:
Profiting From Illness

III