Monday, 20 December 2021 10:55

Britain in 2021

Written by
in Poetry
1772
Britain in 2021
"Dark Valley" by Aldo Echevarría

Britain in 2021
after Shelley’s ‘England in 1819’

by Rip Bulkeley

An old, bad, foolish and decaying state,
Riddled with racism from empire’s core;
Maltreated refugees, war’s graduates,
Drowning to reach inhospitable shores;
Food banks crowded with families desperate
From poverty; inflation set to roar;
Help services undermined by private cash
While decimated by the plague’s full brunt;
Women and children daily abused, smashed;
The disabled dying from neglect by official scum;
Tower blocks terrified of joining Grenfell’s ash;
Zero hours slavery; the homeless trashed -
Such evil ways unjustly smothered drums
Shall one day summon us to overcome. 

 

Read 1772 times Last modified on Friday, 24 December 2021 10:24
Rip Bulkeley

Rip Bulkeley recently edited Rebel Talk: poems from the climate emergency, which is published by Extinction Rebellion Oxford and can be ordered from all good bookshops.