An organised mess,

No train of thought,

Just swirls and swoops, 

Campaign abort 

If ironed and pressed,

A chain no longer, 

Confused and tangled,

But maid of honour

A taste of love,

So now you see,

Instilled in us,

A fantasy

Exchange our hearts, 

Entrusting me,

Through pain feel power,

Uncomfortably. 

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9th November 2019

1961

A wall of shame

cut through a city and a people

a bleak new division:

we and the world turned away

1989

A wall fell

remade a city, a people, a history

a bright new union:

we and the world rejoiced

2019

Now we fashion

our uniquely British wall

a tragedy of repeated history:

the world wonders, shrugs

2047

A...

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Look, I like having legal rights; to be a citizen not just a subject,
but I’m not without doubts about this great European project.
No, I don’t fear drowning in seas of asylum seekers some’d prefer out of my backyard
but the far right’s rise darkens my night skies and I find some truths really are quite hard.
Yes, the status quo is twisted so some not so nice people do too well off it,
b...

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Poem for Bob Crow (cheers W.H. Auden)

Stop all the docks, cut off the trains, 
Start the mariners striking, be still the cranes, 
Silence the busses and with muffled bullhorn 
Bring out the coffin, let the workers come. 

Let politicians circle, moaning overhead 
confessing on the airwaves, He Is RED, 
Put nooses round the white necks of the bosses, 
Let the riot policemen carry their own crosses. 

He was...

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The Union man gets up to say that rights he fought for day by day

Are quickly being snatched away. Hurrah the Union man!

He’s calling out to you and me to show some solidarity

And march beside the TUC. Defend the Union man!

The low paid worker makes a plea to call upon our sympathy.

The state affords him subsidy to make a living wage.

When public jobs are privatise...

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The heat switches between the rooms
From the front of the house, to the back
And on the bed, your curled form is laid
I'm watching the sky as it cries in the street
Blowing my nose and counting the people
They all carry bags of food to their cars
Filled with treats and sweet desserts
All insults to the hunger pains in my chest

As I move to the kitchen, you stir for a second
This day is tu...

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