Empire Made

Empire Made

After assembly, we kids got changed
and were single-filed to monotone,
music and movement had been arranged
and Miss turned on the gramophone.

In vest and shorts and our ankle socks
we jumped and danced as the music played,
it crackled its way from a wooden box
and our soles were labelled Empire Made.

Well I remember those plimsolls we wore
and perished elastication,
the marks we left on the highly waxed floor
in the midst of decolonisation.

Heirs to all of the nation's treasures,
encouraged to prance haphazardly,
last of the old imperial measures
initially formed by the BBC.

We all coloured in the Union Jack
and much of the world was red,
no going forward and no turning back -
we moved to the music instead.

We had no idea of changing r?les,
the balance of power or trade,
cross-legged we studied those old plimsolls
and we, like they, were Empire Made.