Obverse

Cherry

By Ewan

Mon, 26 Aug 2019
  • 2938 reads
5 comments
 

Charming eccentricity

morphs into frothing madness

through the prism of politics.

Each vote polarises more.

From the foolishness of Boaty Mac

via flirtation with Farage

to the referendumb.

 

Lowest common denominator

campaigning:

 

“They won’t understand the arguments,

we’ll just give them slogans

and we’ll put them on buses!

Let’s show it to everyone

seven times: lucky seven

means they’ll buy!

They call us Brexiteers

but we are marketeers,

marketing for all we are worth

though the voters may not think that much.”

 

Bojo the Clown as ringmaster?

It has a certain, dissonant ring,

of course.

 

As cousin Trumpo offers us

the chance to imitate

their worst.

 

We do.

We complain

 

“We did not cross the box

for this buffoon, this loon

was chosen by the true blue

in the face, reactionary

hordes in Rotary, Oddfellow

W.I and Freemasonic meetings”.

 

But we did,

when we did not

cross any box.

When we said,

 

“What’s the point?

Not another fucking election!”

 

When we behaved like Brenda

and marked registration forms

“return to sender”.

 

As we have sown

so shall we reap.

 

Certificate 15
Poem
Days Like These
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by catherine poarch on

Exactly. Although living in Bristol I feel a bit protective towards Brenda because politicians have turned people off. But I wish our history was taught louder, how all our peasant ancestors weren't allowed to vote and it took hundreds of years of fighting to get that right.  I enjoyed this a lot yes. 

 

Submitted by Mark Say on

That line 'the voters may not think that much' is depressingly true. It's what explains the success of dishonest showmen like Johnson and Trump in politics.

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

I'm not sure people didn't think about their vote (assuming they bothered to vote).  For me it's a case of people on both sides seeing what they wanted to see - people who smugly assumed it was unthinkable that the country would vote to leave, and people who assumed that politicians would not out and out lie to them.  Now neither side knows what the fuck to do to stop any of the nonsense, and we shrug at politicians' lies, pausing only to giggle if they're outrageous enough.  

We really have brought it on ourselves.

 

Submitted by Ewan on

 the 'that' refers to their "worth" for all which the políticos are marketing and which the voters don't think amounts to much.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Ed Crane on

yet they embrace a deal with Trump. He practically invented the C word.

You're right they didn't and still don't think, but then, it seems nobody is thinking these days.