Poems From 'Mood Swing'

Just Passing Through Section

POETRY

Children Of The Tower

I have closed the doors on gas chambers
And set foot on the moon.
I have mown the fields of Passchendaele
And given my child a balloon.

I have covered the world in teeming cities
And taken refuge in a hermit’s cave.
I have felt the hooves of my master’s horse
And built the pyramids with my slaves.

I have banished forever the plagues of old
And built bombs that can destroy the Earth.
I have explored the inner workings of my being
And determined the nature of the Universe’s birth.

I have beaten the drums of war
And sung a song to melt an angels heart.
I have laid waste vast swathes of land
And planted orchids in the barren desert.

I have created myself in my own image
And destroyed species without a thought.
I have written religious stories that will live forever
Making promises that eager souls readily bought.

I have decreed we shall speak with the same tongue
And silenced the weak of arm and will.
I have given free thinkers their dominion
And crushed their spirit just for the thrill.

I have caste the devil into the abyss of hell
And invited sciences prophets to my table.
I have grasped for things out of my reach
And built a stairway to the Tower of Babel.

Tread Carefully

(‘Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.’) - G.K. Chesterton.

Tread carefully for we are legion.
We walk among you, outcasts of a noble profession,
Bespectacled, hunched, cheeks burning.
We stalk, plot, plan our revenge
At coffee shops in the four corners of the realm.

We bought flaming torches to the masses,
Gave wings to fly, wheels to roll,
Disseminated information and skills,
Expanded minds, raised horizons,
All to be treated like worthless ignorant wretches.

Ungrateful Whitehall Yahoos!
50 billion pounds spent on ‘the grand demoralization.’
Cretinous rebukes and rabbit punch denigrations,
Another pedestal to kick to touch.
Lions led by donkeys in another era!

You dug a trench for us to lie in,
Face down in the mud, hands behind our backs,
Then dumped fifty seven varieties of untested curriculum,
An Amazonian rainforest to suffocate all but the dullest minds.
How you enjoyed us writhing in the pyre of piffle.

Professional integrity and independence forsaken,
Contempt for creativity undermined,
Impositions designed to humiliate.
Let’s replace self-respect with despondency,
Let’s blame the teachers for our ‘broken society.’

‘A good teacher can teach a class of hundreds.’
‘Think of the children before you whinge.’
‘If you can’t stand the heat, blah,blah,blah.’
‘Our children need to compete with Asians,’
An ‘up yours’ Chinese wonderland awaits.

Now feck off Mr.Chips and Miss Jean Brodie,
Don’t darken our door again, you four-eyed dinosaurs!
Keep taking the doctors prescriptions.
Why not self medicate yourself off this mortal coil?
So what if people took their lives.

A word to the wise scumbag bureaucrat,
Tread carefully, we know where you live.
Walter White’s army is on the move
And we won’t just be selling crystal meth
At the entrances to your children’s private schools.

The shape-shifting, brown-nosing managerial ponces,
The intellectual pygmies, pen-pushing sell-outs,
Will be the first to be cut down
In the cull of half-wit sycophants.
The worm has turned, up the revolution!

Man the barricades ladies and gentlemen,
No sleep till we’ve eaten our enemies souls!
If you think you know us Eton boys
Tread…. Tread…. very carefully.
Cos we’re coming to get you.

In Memorandum, Dave Spartacus.