London 2012

The shard looms large

New flats grow from the Marshes,

Sweatshop treats in new consumer pick-a-mix

Overseen by Lord Seb Coe of the London Olympics,

New laws in place, a dying welfare state,

Did the Mayans predict this?

 

Tories back in power again

Dissidents in the Tower again,

Bang Bang, Duggen’s dead,

Police bullets in his head,

They want to blame the blacks again,

Take us back to that again,

Trap us like lab-rats again,

Experiment in how to take the piss –

Fuck the poor and help the rich,

Evict the gypsies, tax the barges,

Relieve Chelsea of congestion charges.

I want to slap these elegant Machiavellians,

All the PR men and the shit they’re selling them,

Moral messages with twisted policy,

Liberty costs money, forget equality,

No fraternity, it’s been like this for fucking eternity.

 

But it’s a condition of my existence

To deny them my compliance

I am the science of resistance,

The crash of thunder and dread,

I am the blood red under your bed,

I am the scorpion in your sheets,

The screaming skull beneath your moisturised sheen

The skein of truth under your perfumed cleavages,

The piles of squalor and the sum of our grievances.

I read about these pharaohs in their summer palaces,

Erecting oriental chalets of Marakesh fantasies,

The locals hit the road, work as guards at their homes,

Keep their own away from this tasteless opulence

Makes me want to burn the whole crew in their pigsty monuments.

 

Please understand, I never had a problem with authority,

But authority seems to have a problem with me,

Can’t take the rejection

It checks on me and demands my attention,

Cos I know of a world where we don’t need laws,

Work together, not for profit, build for the cause.

It doesn’t take a genius to know why they feel threatened

Termites in their oak panel, ivy in their walls,

The hum of the mosquito, the tapeworm in their bowels.

I know we’ve all heard what the meek will,

And mission seems impossible,

But numbers ARE unstoppable, tyrants ARE toppable,

Combined and collective

Immune to their rhetoric,

We’ve all seen the film and learnt from past lessons,

Invincibility lessoned,

See where their weapons get them.

 

By Sam Berkson