HARSH
all’s fair in
laisses-faire
forget love
and war
learnt these hard
economic truths
on the streets
of Manchester
living on the exact site
of Engels’ house
but out in Eastlands
ten cents on the dollar
they built
a steel and perspex
palace of football
pure sky blue, now
horribly stained
and in its surrounds a
wheeler-dealer premium prestige
thousand and one nights fantasyland
beyond the pay grade of
poor good abiding
by the rules
souls like
me
and thee
for, in truth, nothing more
beautiful than a world, or
at least a city
refashioned in
corporate interest
striving to be the ultimate
utopia, realization of
the old
Manchester system economic
vision
each fresh golden
foundation
strong and secure enough
to bear the weight
of
exploitation
the titanic debt to
support whatever
demonic structure
calculated to
expand to
the giddy limit
the crazy-ass overloads of
the lords of hell
(for all
that they can buy
and sell)
