Democracy reveals the state
Of our disunity - Doug.E.Barr, poet

As I stood by the till

I heard a voice call out

It's over - the people's will:

A good result - a real rout

And ducked my head to pay

As the cashier agreed

And ducked my sad head to pray:

My silent view, an alien creed.

It's over - the people have had their say

That last faint hope is gone, done...

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9th November 2019

1961

A wall of shame

cut through a city and a people

a bleak new division:

we and the world turned away

1989

A wall fell

remade a city, a people, a history

a bright new union:

we and the world rejoiced

2019

Now we fashion

our uniquely British wall

a tragedy of repeated history:

the world wonders, shrugs

2047

A...

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"There is no sin except stupidity." Oscar Wilde -The Critic as Artist.

Mea culpa! Mea culpa!

Nostra maxima culpa!

Thus should we weep, we cry

As it all ends with a whimper, a sigh

It is the people's will, they say

Proroguing to get their glory day

Your vote was for an ideal state

For nation, borders, Keep Britain Great

Now, your vote means a total schism

As we se...

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Falstaff: 'Henry IV, Part 1' act 5, sc. 4

There is a man

Who would be a king. This is such stuff

As past dreams would make his many morrows

That he, Princeling, may strut upon life's stage

As one with pride.

Yet this is a man

Who must know a past. That is the stage

As present nightmare on which he played so sad a part

That he, Pretender, needs now attend our co...

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Broken

it is all bleak broken; half-hell-heard House, blight blasted, a

sound spoke maelstrom where we see no substance swirling over heads

and hearts unheard - untending - unending obstacles to speech where

he, bright-tied bright-eyed, oversees the game's communication farce fail

debate: debate dire-drowning in the noise.

Order!

Broken

it is all blame blighted; w...

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There are no wise men any more

their old wisdom is lost

no old spells that cure

no potions endure

where once they saved the farmer's herd

the mystery is blurred

and spells that helped a marriage spurned

are no longer learned

the people who once were in their debt

turn to the internet

There are no wise men any more

their actions show their flaws

no old spell...

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I will! I will join Juvenal

at the North world’s end

on the frozen ocean ice

if one more lie is penned

another argument to slice

our country from its friend:

to make us pay the price.

Enough! We see the trend

let that one vote suffice

another will just offend

divide and not entice.

Let the peoples’ will transcend,

better not to ask them twice!

We’re doomed to...

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Can it possibly be true

How the twelve months flew

Really twenty-four have passed

In terror of being outcast

Since that dire vote to leave

The parties it seems must all deceive

Mindless of the real cost

All thoughts of governance long lost

So the lady May survive

Gainst all that ministers contrive

Regardless of the pundits' sense

Ever blind to the expense

Ever d...

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It was black and white

for a while

Until the first line

was drawn

Then the pale grey people

the people who could only draw

a black cross

in a white box

began to sense

other possibilities

shading the palette

The colours of debate

splashed clumsily

over everything:

the harsh red of anger

the yellow of injustice

screaming crimson

a har...

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You're aching for peace

I'm hurting too

Let the arguing cease

There's polling to do

You look for meaning

I offer a word

No sense for your gleaning

I'm not sure they heard

You called referendum

I thought it was flawed

A meaningless thrum

On democracy's chord

You were not aware and

I never knew

That voting out fanned

A nationalist view

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Black steel

curling wrought iron

balustrade

Beneath me

coffee steam

and noise

rise

and a poet

sits talking

animatedly

his foot jiggling

as he gesticulates

outside

autumn sun

shines on wet roofs

and casts

tree shadows

on house walls

outside

the sea is rising

while

London sinks

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You see

            a land wraithed in smoke and the stink of death

You feel

            man's determination dulled by desperation and

            the hollow, guilty hope that the creeping fate might end

            at a neighbour's door.

You cannot farm in the present

At least not in Wales.

The hills were silent memorials to herds brought low,

Uncropped: a tragedy of gr...

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