Shafted

Noblesse must oblige
since a bunch of elitists
grants droit du seigneur.

Not News

Each day, the same:
News that tweaks before it checks;
Assumes, skims over, grooms, neglects –
Like all good servants, un-sees, covers, cleans, forgets.

What day is it? What year, this week
But yesterday’s rehashed receipt?

Wash; condition; rinse; repeat;
Reset the gloss, that it may speak as scrutiny it did not seek
‘Til time and topic loyally meet to mete the minuted worksheet
And mock the poor pips as they squeak.

Which way is up? What’s going down
Behind the clowns who spin in rounds
Stale bread and circus tedium of stenographic medium?

Priority: free access to monotony of Overton variety
In twenty-four-seven society, quieted so quietly;
Cuckolded, entirely.

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Feet: follow Will

Feet: follow Will
Tap in kind
Beat in time
Echo Heart
Mirror Mind

Still mine
All Thine

Spirit fill
Soul: rhyme

squeeze

on your knees
feed greed
do more
with less
second
third
fourth best
grow need
say “please”
dying breath
and squeeze

mother tongue

Pardon me
but,
could you speak more slowly, Dave?
Your right-wing propaganda conjugations
aren’t my mother tongue –
I think my ears have integration accent.
I hear
that hate and fear, in the infinitive,
is clearly meant
but wonder at the double-Dutch translation.
See, the doing in your flow
sows predication on imperative,
as though you did construct
a comprehensively deliberate conflation.

It is David Cameron who doesn’t believe in Britain.

All David Cameron has done for the last five and half years is to repeat a pathetically predictable pattern. He goes round and round. First he neglects, dismantles, underfunds or outsources something with a crass policy. When it becomes sufficiently untenable that even the Media can’t avoid it, he makes a statement which includes the words lessons and learning. Then he announces a solution that he already promised anyway but, curiously, as of the moment, has failed to deliver on or he spins another, hasty, ill-conceived policy that may or may not match his over-simplistic rhetoric. Simultaneously, he snipes cheaply at his opposition in order to deflect attention from his own dreadful record. This is mostly directed at Labour (who often deserve a swipe, if not for the reasons Dave selects) but also at any charity or other professional organisation daring to question him, especially the BBC, when it does rouse itself to criticise. How many times have you read, later, about some expert and/or common sense advice that the Con administration has deliberately disregarded?

It’s as though Dave doesn’t know about that thing called Memory; neither his nor ours. How else could he have such outrageous chutzpah? It’s more than bold brass neck, though, isn’t it? He is afraid of honesty and accountability because he’s afraid of our capacity to imagine better. He doesn’t trust us because, politically, he can’t afford to.

He accuses Corbyn of not believing in Britain – most recently, simply because he questioned the government’s housing policies. But never mind Corbyn: it is David Cameron who doesn’t believe in Britain. From selling, to destroying, to abandoning aspects and parts of her, he seems quite anxious to do down or be quickly rid of most of its finest treasures. So much for his ‘British values’.

More than this, though, the Prime Minister specifically does not believe in the people of Britain. In fact, he doesn’t appear to even like us. From work ethic and skills, to parenting, to civic protest, he’s constantly putting people down, harassing them back up and then tripping them over with crude and unnecessary obstacles. He makes the vulnerable more vulnerable by singling out the wrong demographics as moral and economic scapegoats while defending those whose lack of financial and moral ethics do not deserve nor warrant his protection.

Defining the shortcomings of a few as the whole scale failing and ownership of entire socio-economic groups, he sermonises and nannies with puddle-depth understanding. Thus we get the suggestion that all bad parents are poor and all poor people are bad parents. Thus we get that only good people are capable of wanting a better life and that only by their aspiration and hard work, do they climb the ladder and become good. Thus we get the attitude that dissent from Dave’s ridiculous and unsustainable worldview makes you a threat to cohesion and progress. Defining the qualities of those whose success is derived from exploitation, nepotism and an established fortune of status as exemplars of good citizenry, he praises for their ‘wealth creation’ and gives unparalleled access to real opportunity. Thus we get the suggestion that genuine socio-economic problems are the fault of a certain class of person and that class is a criteria for respect. Thus we get that choice is in the power of the individual and that power and money make the choices. Thus we get that the most privileged are to be excused their failings and that bad leadership is not at all related to integrity.

David Cameron treats us like fools because that’s what he needs to believe we are. He patronises us because he believes in patronage. He insults our intelligence because he doesn’t have enough, himself, to respect it. He views those who cannot function independently of the state – most of us, by degree – as socio-economic burdens. Worse, the most vulnerable, he has actually either forced, ironically, into absolute dependence upon his ministers’ arbitrary good will or he has cut them loose to sink or swim.

Our Prime Minister doesn’t believe in Britain because he doesn’t believe in most of her people. To maintain the prevailing narrative, he needs us to fall into line or be removed. Well, we, the People: we are Britain. We are the manifest soul of the land. He shows an outright contempt for both and that, funnily enough, is all I have left for him.

Obstruction

Look for
the set-ups
in your upsets.

Here comes Dave

There it is: concerned face;
spinning-in-place-heel-turn.
There it is: the pompous arse –
watch the bully’s cheeks burn.
There it is: deflecting farce,
worthy of its own derision.
There it is: revisionism;
building on the lessons learned.
There it is: the platitude,
empty as the puppet muse.
There it is: the PR pointing,
pointing, pointing (where’s his thumb?)
There it is: a hasty promise –
same as the last one.
There it is: another callous policy has proven to be dumb.
He shifts a bit uncomfortably (here comes the fun – well, better late…)
And, there it is: a beauty gotcha! High stakes –
Oh, wait: media mates.

Epochalypse

Anthropocene dreams
such stuff as memes are made on;
nightmares to perform.

Happy New Year, lovely people!

Happy New Year, you lovely people!
Thank you for being!

***

We are cosmic prisms,
reflecting, connecting, with infinite vibrations
that shake the physical and consume the spiritual.
Intense awareness is ours – experience is sharp.
We are our teachers and our pupils;
scholars of the wisdom well,
plunging into Truth and emerging as fountains,
sprinkling little drops of consequence and potential.

⚡️

May the New Year see our resolve renewed
and our wishes bear a sweeter fruit.
May we stride purposefully into our future
with hope, strength and confidence.
May we find trust in our own judgement
and the courage to meet our tests.
May we see more light, feel more love,
hear deeper truths, speak higher wisdom
and taste real progress.

✢