Grey sky rises over red top roofs

Smog subsides to reveal a painful truth

Wailing sirens break the placid dawn

Coughs resonate as another death is born

Broken windows creak

Broken homes are chic

Broken bottles on playing fields

The futures looking bleak

The taste of desperation

Lingers in every mouth

Northern emaciation

Looks better in The South

All items of value have long since been removed

The cause is undiagnosed but the symptoms are being soothed

 

Graffiti on the walls

Graffiti on the bus

The landscapes being raped

By corporate greed and lust

Turning every corner

A shelter is closing down

The sunbed shops are warmer

And three pasties cost a pound

Gold is bought by the gram

Drugs are sold by your gran

Drugs prescribed to help her survive

Sold in favour of ‘scran

A disused factory is the scene

As innocence is lost

Sinking to brown from the green

Scored whatever the cost

Desperate measures in desperate times

Gangs are becoming tribal

Bragging rights for different crimes

You must out do your rival

One boy stands, one’s on his knees

The video has just gone viral

Closes his eyes as he cries and pleads

Remembers the words from his bible

His wounds seep, his mother weeps

The sky descends to black

The rain can’t distil the pain

Only waters a revenge attack

 

It’s depicted on the evening news

As is reluctant parents favouring booze to shoes

Corporate fat cats, too keen to line their pockets

The homes of innocent children destroyed by hostile rockets

Murderers, thieves, and rapists seemingly going unpunished

Unfounded allegations tying the hands of justice

Churches, mosques and synagogues daubed with disrespect

Pensioners, students, young families swallowed up by debt

Sensationalist journalists not caring about the truth

Corrupt politicians sending taxes through the roof

Abusers of the system who offer no contribution

Masked vigilantes with misguided retribution

People going hungry forced to live on the street

Victims bullied into silence fearing reprisals if they speak

Every man has a protest, an argument, war or quarrel

Driven by greed, religion, lust but never morals

And as dusk falls on red top roofs

We see the painful truth

Society’s fall affects us all

Not just disaffected youth