Category Archives: England Britain satire history poem poetry

AND ALL THAT I THOUGHT

when I was little
infinitely younger
than I am now
and did not know
the word
“emigration”

was gullible Brit boy
to the core
had read the comics
knew all
our history

how dark treacle toffee
is the taste
of treason

and before that
the Yorkists were
bad, bad, people
banner of the Sun
and white,
white rose red rose Lancastrian

on my school blazer pocket
red
rose Lancastrian
in the History plays too

Oh yes, in the second war civil
so cavalier to fight
with jewelled rapier
and so very dashing in
long beautiful
curling hair

supporting the right of Kings
to be God’s chosen idiots

that guy Cromwell
farmer, turned warrior,
turned chopping block
butcher
by purest means

and in this so reluctant an
avatar of necessary revolution

his death leaving a
direction not taken
austere, egalitarian
not quite Milton’s
version as
poetic Protestant dream

but I protest too much
we all protest too much

try to level up and
they fear we bringing down

and now
flood tide in revelation
about this
Empire of exploitation
economy of inhumanity

so baffled
shame and guilt dawning
driving us out
of our wits remembering the

bonfire night vendetta V
taste of those
treacle sweets
.
story told of heroic standing alone
. for freedom, share in
a future for all mankind

not the ring
the absolute ring
it once had for me