The Nuclear Shelter Myth

A do it yourself nuclear shelter,

If you can find a suitable room.

Where people can live like rabbits,

In an air-locked, sandbagged tomb.

Eating hoarded tins of beans, mince with gravy,

Spaghetti and sausage too.  The monotony will drive you crazy.

What to do with the empty tins! Just put them under the bed.

Don’t complain because there is no fresh fruit, milk or bread.

No water to wash the dishes, make tea or bath

Or put Grandma’s teeth in, doesn’t it make you laugh!

The Elsan lavatory and chamber pot have pride of place,

With no privacy for anyone, where can I hide my face?

Squirt the air freshener, and use the electric fan.

Sorry there is no electricity for lighting, heat or fan.

Lets play candlelight Scrabble, Monopoly, Ludo or telling tales,

“My aunt Fanny went to Paris”, the minutes pass like snails.

The nuclear packaged fortnight, yearly long, has passed.

Dare we make a reconnaissance outside at last?

If the radiation has subsided, is it safe to leave?

Aghast we see the desolation, the moon landscape, how we grieve.

No sign of life awaits us, dead people everywhere,

No water, heat or lighting, no TV or Medicare.

No uncontaminated food to nourish us, no telephone to call,

No animals, flowers or vegetables.  Please don’t make a fuss at all.

Now is the time to protest before it is too late,

To let the politicians know we want to love not hate.

To make war these days is crazy, a war no one can win.

So people of the World unite and let the loving begin.

March 1980

Humanity

We are human personalities, not a government-packaged kit.

We have a character to build, responsible decisions to make.

Never quit.

Stand firm in out-look, not sponge-like and weak.

Not flabby or wishy-washy, but confidently the truth to speak.

Sure in the knowledge that what we say is right.

Love will triumph; the meek will inherit, without military might.

Speak out for the right to live in peace,

Discard propaganda that spreads hatred with ease,

Refusing to be authorities, kneeling, mealy-mouthed sycophants.

So, may we realize life’s true worth.

And reject mercenary materialism on the earth.

April 1980

The Sanctity of Life

May 1980

Preserve life they say, do not abort,

Even when the baby is not wanted, maternal feelings dead.

Don’t abort they say, even when the foetus is deformed

And the child doomed to live a life handicapped in every way,

A constant burden and worry to its parents every day.

A cause of family stress, even though they love the child dearly.

Preserve life they say, do not abort.

But don’t hesitate to bomb and blast

Millions of healthy children, for some petty reason.

Because the politicians disagree, then kill, these same people say.

Preserve life our brilliant surgeons say,

With skill and dedication they transplant a heart to prolong a life.

Yet these same surgeons do nothing, say nothing,

Against the monstrous weapons that will destroy

Billions of healthy hearts, at the press of a button

By a madman, for a whim.

Are these surgeons themselves heartless?

Or just thoughtless men.  Why don’t they speak out against war and killing? And with their knowledge and influence,

Persuade politicians to disarm and live in peace

Double Standards

Save me from hypocrites,

Politicians who profess peace

While rearming for war.

Christians who speak of love

And the brotherhood of man

But in hate are prepared to kill.

Those who condemn Russia

For acts they themselves commit,

Afghanistan, what about Vietnam

And others ad infinitum.

Who support free unions in Poland

But legislate to fetter unions here,

Only six pickets! Who is freer?

People

What price the ceremony?

The pomp, the pageant,

Royal purple,

Carpet so red.

The bowing and curtseying

By the privileged few,

Social climbers,

Toadying to royalty.

This empty nonsense,

THEY ARE ONLY PEOPLE AFTER ALL.

Bishops, kings and generals

On parade, this earthly farce.

No shortage of public spending,

For top peoples carnival.

Lesser mortals stand in awe

To watch the grand go by,

Gentry, whose position,

Lightly held by coercion

Of thought, word and deed.

THEY ARE ONLY PEOPLE AFTER ALL.

But some have carriages of gold,

Some cannot even walk.

But some have wealth untold,

Some with pittance grow old.

But some live in palaces,

Some live on the street.

But some have banquets in luxury,

Some starve in poverty, little to eat.

So will the rich with power care?

Rearrange world affairs so all share.

Naked we all arrive here.

Naked we all go.

Everywhere in this small world.

ALL ARE PEOPLE, AFTER ALL.

April 1981

On Not Hearing the Cuckoo in spring

Oh to hear the Cuckoo sing,

As we used to do in spring.

Machine made noise we hear instead

And aeroplanes roaring overhead.

We see hedges disappear

When the Bulldozers are near,

Beautiful trees are uprooted,

No songbirds sing, their nests jackbooted.

Little animals, Bees and Butterflies

Have no home when the hedgerow dies.

There flowers, shrubs and brambles grew,

But by grotesque machines were destroyed too.

No more Rose Hip Syrup and Blackberry Pie,

No Elder or Hawthorn Wine, so dry.

Now monotonous miles of cash crops grow

Where patchwork fields did beauty show.

Manufactured fertilizers and weed killers are spread,

Leaving insects, birds and animals dead.

People too these chemicals fear.

Oh where is the Cuckoo now spring is here.

January 1982

Force

1914

Just this once, never again, They said,

In the trenches war will cease forever, They said.

Husbands, fathers, sons and brothers do not die in vain

Freedom must be defended, They said.

Except freedom to refuse to fight, to kill,

For that courageous conviction

Imprisonment, firing squad, They said.

1939

A Just war, finally to end war, They said,

Freedom from concentration camp,

Millions forced to fight and die,

Orders must be obeyed, They said.

Conscription, evacuation, blackout, rationing, war work

Freedom bought for the few with “gun money”.

The manufacturers of death, for the many.

For our freedom, endure They said.

1982

Even today wars must be fought

Children killed, people tortured, They say.

Merchants of death still sell their hideous wares,

A threat to any who disagree, submit or die, They say.

Freedom has become propaganda,

Freedom synonymous with privatisation, a dirty word,

Involving if necessary, annihilation of millions of people,

The destruction of civilization.

Today’s Nuclear “Kitchener still needs you”, They say.

Impasse thinking, stereotyped judgements by politicians,

Decisions made, that affect us all,

By criminal lunatics, I say.

So It’s Humour You Want

You could say life is funny,

On a day that is sunny.

In fact, simply hilarious

If it wasn’t so precarious.

World leaders have power

To destroy all in an hour,

Sing heigh ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

Mrs. X sleeps with Y, morals are lacking.

The Government says the workers are slacking.

Many police carry guns.

Some behave like Huns.

But carry on smoking,

Darts, snooker and joking.

Sing heigh ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

There’s a hole in my stocking.

Every day the news is shocking.

Our green and pleasant land,

For Cruise Missiles is planned.

There’s a run on the pound,

And the fox has gone to ground.

Sing heigh ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

No principles in society.

A complete loss of piety.

Surely men have no soul

Who complain on the Dole.

But the birds are still singing

And the money tills are ringing.

Sing heigh ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

The governments recession

Sure leads to depression.

Education, Social and Health funds decrease,

While our military budgets for ever increase.

But Mrs Thatcher is awfully resolute,

Resolutely awful some people would moot,

Sing heigh ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

There’s a smut on my face,

And the towns a disgrace.

Litter and dirt everywhere

And no one seems to care.

Land of Hope and Glory

Is quite another story!

Sing heigh ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

inational Companies rule the Earth

Their shareholders positively shake with mirth.

Small businesses our government enthral,

Now even large industry has become small.

In this land of the free,

Vat, tax inflation fiddle-de-dee,

Sing hey ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

So let everyone sing

A welcome to spring.

The sunshine and showers

Should produce many flowers.

In the parks few are planted

For flowers no money is granted.

Sing hey ho the holly

Life is so jolly.

February 1983