Anyways, this is a poem I wrote, loosely inspired by the Daily Mail and Ed Milliband's dad. It's a poem, because I think it can safely be accepted as fact that all thoughts about politics are best expressed in rhyme:
Patriotism
It’s
considered a given
that
wherever you’re livin’
is the best piece
of ground
wound round
and round
in a fog of
renown.
And that
love of one’s kingdom
is something
to sing from
the palaces
of power,
the football
fan’s glower,
the tabloid front-pages.
But in truth
it enrages
me royally.
Could
someone explain
how raising
terrain
to a moral
position
is not superstition?
Extolling
the good
and throwing
a hood
on the bad,
is a fiction:
a shut-eyed
constriction
of history.
It disguises
our flaws,
it drives us
to wars
where our
flaws become claws
and worse -
we grab at
the purse
of others’
resources,
with clench-fisted
forces.
I don’t get
‘nation’
and its
awful conflation
with right
and I slight
patriotism
as nothing
but schism.
© Catherine
Lucie, 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment