Impenitent Penitentiary

Impenitent Penitentiary

 

You keep listening; you will hear keys lock,

shutters bolt, a skin shuddering in shock

as Winter draws on, as kindling draws straw,

as clumped grass refuses to dry, feels raw,

for from these cold suns it will not draw,

once soft fires do not warm life anymore,

against hard frosts fruitless bar your door.

You keep observing, but you will not see,

think nothing deep but say you’re free

as food mountains become food troughs,

become food banks for robbers, and cops

sport boots that stamp your face forever,

Winston, cleave indelible tattoos, leather

straps to bite with weight, wrack your spine,

grind your face into grime, but all is fine

there’s nothing to see when you are blind.

You keep lookout for ships that never sail,

never dock, never harbour and klaxons wail;

steel hulls so steep, too high to ever scale,

widening moats for paper boats sinking,

shake off scruples and keep on drinking

if only the cost was less but no turning back,

high rise burn infernos, low rise crumble shacks,

to climb one hill is only to climb another

is much ado about nothing, is lost lover,

lost brother, lost sisters all; it only is fashion

where an aimless compass lacks compassion,

steers nowhere but the next, then the next,

slips guide to dash below on rocks wrecked.

You keep reading, but no one is learning

in universities where all books are for burning,

libraries eviscerated, filleted and purged,

where thinking sinks all thought submerged,

dividers and rulers draft power and wealth,

a minority bleeds a majority through stealth

and now for Great Britain here’s Britain itself,

whose prisoners slump from bad to worse,

still vote for next to nothing in their purses,

watch funerals passing wanting only hearses.

You feel something's missing, but no remorse;

a wasteland, full of gaudy carts, but no horses

strain, they're back in Spain, in Greece remain,

while turnkeys serve minced hearts and brains

and pigswill to inmates, discretely scoffing

at the mindless noughts who are ballot crossing.