the bridges are
budding
a skirl of horns
greets us
clockwork mice
arriving by tardis
neat papers foretell
jobless futures
academics unravel
weeks go by
without a newspaper
we have the
bourgeoisies
of every minority
we have the
believers
in Abstract Ideas
cultural lakes
flush themselves
silly in our presence
rambling roses
engulf each chimney romantically
the seam of time and
space begins to rip
city cliffs vomit
lemmings in a rain of abacus beads
the zenith is the
hue of dubbin
the dustbin of
history is always full
there are no jobs
everyone must have a
job
sestinas ring out
complicatedly
they comprise the
national anthem
everyone must learn
it off by heart
it is the same in
every country
robots sing it
everywhere
Bach made happy
special bodies of
armoured machines enforce order
wrinkled men rule as
they did 50 years ago
the Queen is still
on the throne, so they say
we watch re-runs of
M*A*S*H and Family Feud
parliament
is compulsory
poetry
is competitive
paintings
are solar-powered
music
is ubiquitous
suicide
is painless
life
is unfair
death
is a holiday
war
is our lifeblood:
welcome
to the future
fantastic Robbie! I was just watching a MASH rerun last night. Suicide is painless, great lyric from that original MASH movie. It is chilling, that ubiquity of the military. Where are the satirists of today satirising this madness?
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteI guess there needs to be a stronger idea of what a peaceful civilisation might be like (and the chance of building it) before the glamour of war can be dispelled, even by satire. The MASH tv show — never did see the movie — is still riding on the optimism of the 60s and 70s. Doesn't seem to be much of that around today, unless I'm just jaded!