Riot
Alarms going off
The sirens sounding
The lights coming up
Vans and batons
In the darkness
The charge of horses
On the riot lines.
And these are
Children, drug addicts,
The revolutionary,
The idealistic,
The disturbed,
Squatters, travellers,
The weary and the
Wary, the critical
And the cynical,
- Not criminals.
They attack ever
Those who most
Care for the
Rest of us –
Environmentalists,
Amnesty, latterday
‘Saints in Arms’
With only sticks
For muskets.
- Or those who
Most need our
Care – abused
Children, addicts,
The left behind
Rather than the
‘Loony left’.
And we send out
Police or army
For this?
When half we
Ought to
Care for,
And the other
Half – we
Need their
Care,
For Heaven knows
We neither
Care about
Ourselves
Nor the state
We’re in.
Only that
T.v. and shopping
Are drugs that
Don’t register
On the lists
And self-deception
Isn’t down in law
As a criminal act.