THE LOFTY ORACLES My old friend insomnia’s here But just once this last political year I want to sleep election night without fear My eyes stinging with tears Wondering when the dust clears What it is I will hear? Is it sobbing or cheers? And whose cheers and whose tears? Will I wake up amazed that the old order’s been razed Our society finally awoke from its daze? Or with the sucker punch of recognizing My fellow citizens have been lionizing The lies And swallowing bullshit down whole when they go to the poll? Believing budget-butchers slash with compassion rather than to let the business cash-in Assuming competence with the economy comes at the cost of our humanity Hoodwinked by media-trained faux passion Following spin-doctored narratives the way the shallow follow fashion Ignoring the catastrophic situation of our growing homeless population A social welfare devastation - you see them sleeping rough around the station And as the trains get more expensive – don’t even think about what your rent is Or how our jobs get less secure as our bosses demand more and more And how our wages aren’t enough to buy the never-ending stuff We need to buy to stay alive – our cost of living a living suicide With our healthcare no longer healthy, it’s funding cut by the super-wealthy, And a diminishing education due to austerity’s financial obliteration But we’re so quick to cite futility, Invent inherent inability, In the name of false stability We choose decline with such rapidity And I find it so regrettable The agenda’s so easily settable By those desperate to make inevitable The idea utopia isn’t gettable But there’s no evidence detectable Revolution ain’t selectable Even though THE LOFTY ORACLES May have denounced it unelectable And I must say I’m curious Why it is we’re aren’t all furious And how it is so many seem contented With unnecessary inequality which could so easily have been prevented Instead becoming cemented like no alternatives have been invented Which could've been implemented to untorment the now tormented But each solution that’s presented is always swiftly circumvented By the ones who all assented to the policies I’ve documented We’re abandoned and unrepresented; a selfish greed unprecedented But we just go about our day like this destruction is okay We shrug our shoulders, shake our head Avert our eyes from all the dead Normalize what should be scandals, legitimize economic vandals, As systematically they dismantle rights which underfoot they trample And we pretend the mood is not so sombre; that’s the propaganda we all conjure As the wrongs keep getting wronger The waiting lists keep getting longer, The vulnerable forsaken, fundamental rights keep getting taken, yet so many refuse to waken to the truth of our situation! All this corruption, all this bribery My outrage could fill a fucking library But while we should be out marching down on the streets Instead pearls of non-wisdom are set to repeat How this is “the real world”, how life “has” to be Manufactured demands treated inerrantly “Educated” opinions that hide strategy Promoted and parroted adherently Clung to despite the incoherency All hope discarded in this cowed paradigm Of the self-harming Groundhog Day we vote for each time And there’s no evidence detectable Revolution ain’t selectable Even though THE LOFTY ORACLES May have denounced it unelectable

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB It’s like we booby-trapped the future An open wound bleeding out and there ain’t no hope of suture I wish I could wish a happy new year But I’m watching wheels rolling forward to a catastrophic fear Dormant malice now awake I barely recognise a world in which this wasn’t a mistake But the mistake that I won’t make Is pretending everything we hold dear isn’t now at stake Before a storm there may be calm But if you think that means it’s over be prepared to be alarmed Because the ballot was a bomb THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB June 24, November 9 Grief-stricken, the saner citizens came to terms with our decline I hold passports in both places A dual-citizen duelling with the thought of all those racists Walls and borders instead of embraces So much hate in so many faces But the sun came up and life went on And you could almost make believe the worst was never gonna come Hoping that it can’t happen here But it always does and always has on this the history is clear THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB The ballot was a bomb X in the box lit the fuse and some forget the fuse is long It reminds me of oh-nine All that false hope after the world crashed and you thought you had survived But unravelling takes time You’re dangling from a rope; don’t see the strands start to untwine Because that poison acted slow The Great Recession already got you but you didn’t even know Cut by cut they chopped us down You didn’t notice you were falling till your body hit the ground So yeah – he’s not even President yet But I get no comfort from the tweets of the President elect Or the big business bigots he has chosen to select Or the petty little grudges he seems unable to forget And our Brexit may lay in a Schrodinger state Both in Europe and out until the trigger date But a stay of execution merely postpones our fate And can’t erase the result of our referendum of hate 2016 fucked the future – our votes flipped the switch Is it any wonder those celebrities chose to die and jump the ship? It hasn’t happened yet, but by the pricking of my thumbs The ballot was a bomb and something wicked this way comes THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB

President Grab-a-Pussy Make America Great Again by making Americans hate again President Grab-a-pussy President build-a-wall President golden showers Awaiting Putin’s call President carnage President Fake News President intolerant Of anyone else’s views President little hands President insecure President winning Like we’ve never won before President no tax President billionaire President who thinks a blind trust Can be a family affair President Islamophobe President election hack President taking all our progress And turning that progress back President American carnage President America first! President 45 who made 43 no longer the worst President Apprentice President You’re fired President who so many racist, sexist assholes you have inspired I thought I’d have something clever to say After Donald Trump’s inauguration day The crowning of a President endorsed by the KKK In the same week we celebrated the birth of MLK But what words are left that can make any of this OK? And at the same time acknowledge that this isn’t going away? That orange Hitler was the victor and that he’s here to stay? That our deepest ideals are about to be betrayed? And so far from what is decent we have very clearly strayed? Besides, how many more times do his failings have to be displayed? The sheer number of disqualifying factors could form a fucking parade! Yet that didn’t seem to matter on last year’s election day And it is too late now even if they did somehow persuade So we are forced to pull the covers on this rotten bed we made And slumber four years with one eye open the fractured sleep of the afraid President Twitter troll President repeal President the art of making a fucking deal President thin-skinned President litigious President who lies so much that his bullshit is prodigious President unethical President regrettable President whose war crimes soon won’t be hypothetical President birther President body-shamer President class of ‘13 WWE hall of famer President insulting President inflamer President who put to rest the claim they’re all the samer President real estate President corrupt President who like his businesses will leave us all bankrupt President climate denier President nuclear slaughter President who creepily seems to want to fuck his own daughter Whenever I picked up my pen today Or opened my mouth up to vent today The words died on my tongue or the page today Just “President Trump” then I’d start to fade That sentence alone and the joke was made Cutting deeper than any satirical blade Four syllables that feel like a hand grenade Like a burning hot day when you can’t find shade You can’t even laugh you feel so dismayed Depression so heavy it can’t be weighed A bill that’s so large it cannot be paid So this is the best I could serenade These lemons not even Beyonce could turn into lemonade: Whatever your politics Whoever you are Let’s agree Reality TV has now gone too far