Them And Us - (I.P.)

A fountain pen in his breast pocket
showed that he was a senior manager
and not part of the striking rabble.
How dare they call him a blackleg
for crossing the line of this mob
full of vitriolic and foolish babble.
Holding placards on which slogans,
painted with broad brush strokes,
exhorted the workforce to disobedience,
they held their fellow men to ransom
with selfish, unreasonable, demands
subjecting the country to inconvenience.
Congregating around a burning brazier
the picket demonstrated solidarity
protesting at the threat of redundancy.
The company had shown no clemency
in their ruthless cull of employees
claiming that they faced insolvency.
The executive, having defied the picket,
stood in the Human Resources office
learning he was surplus to requirement.
The fountain pen in his breast pocket
plus nigh on twenty years of loyal service
had proved in the end totally irrelevant.

© Luigi Pagano 2011