Poem

 

Once Great Britain 

As castles crumble ivy creeps around
Where battles were fought we hear no sound
Just imagined echoes of clashing swords
And the rumble of hooves moving towards
Victories upon famed battlefields
Banners raised high as the enemy yields
Now crows peck there where went the plough
And barley waves in silence now.
 
All along these leafy lanes
That hummed the summer long
You could hear the jaunty whistling
Of soldier boys in song
Of bravery and parted love
And the manliness of war
All hideousness was hidden
In the days that went before.
 
Recrimination suppurates
As bulbous tumours grow
This cannot be the land
Our forebears used to know
And yet the way the lane still bends
To the church with its ancient yew
Harks back to all our yesterdays
And the glories that we knew.
 
Enter stage right those hollow men
With empty lines that whine when
Delivered to the gods on high
Hypocrisy to make you cry.
 
I wandered lonely as a clown
For years after the fair left town
And trudged up streets on rising slopes
Where townsfolk forged their secret hopes.
 
Among these dark satanic mills
You could hear lone cuckoos sing
As swifts above yon rolling hills
Cavorted on the wing.
 
Rooks quarrel in the churchyard
Where old St Faith’s once stood
New burials there have long been barred
Like the bones of  grave falsehood.
 
Please please me oh yeah like I please you…
Carved in stone the endless names
Love me forever and I’ll be true
What on earth are we going to do?
 
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
To whom shall we sing our timeworn songs
Now that there’s no one else?