The Ragamuffin Manifesto

The ragamuffins came over the hill
With a brick and a bottle and a burst balloon

Only to discover the cold cold corpse of a party
But still they gnawed on the bones
Licked the salt from the empty finger bowls
Urinated in the remnants of the punch
And gargled it
Passing sexually transmitted diseases back and forth
Whilst burning holes in the blankets of sleeping guests
And using them as ponchos
To re-enact the
Mexican
Revolution

For the ragamuffins are an educated tribe
With a rhyme and a reason and a runcible spoon
Haunting the cold cold corridoors of academe
Where they paint the walls a garish shade of grey
Replace Rembrandts with Rothkos
Toast theses in the grilling tray
And butter them
Passing Occam's knife and fork back and forth
Whilst compiling Estonian translations of dusty tomes
Faithfully rendered in Braille
As didactic
Mental
Evolution

Yes the ragamuffins will shape your soul
With a whisper and a weapon and a witches brew
The cold cold conventions of the polity
Declared anathema for the conscious
They will break your chains, mend your fences
Derange the mind, détourne the senses
And decommodify
Passing pretty little platitudes back and forth
Whilst organising sit-ins where there is standing room only
Proclaiming the second death of God
An ecstatic
Millennial
Constitution