All things are.....

 

All things are only by comparison

Years ago as a boy I played and stumbled

across the bombed ruins where I lived

It was all I knew and all I could see

The world was like an old sepia photo

we lived in a prefab built on a bomb site

My mother shopped with coupons as food was rationed

we took a rickety old pram to the coal yard

to bring home our coal ration

There was insufficient petrol for coal deliveries

My mother mended our clothes as they too were rationed

I wore old 'hand me downs' which were too big for me

Days, long days of austerity we endured

in the hope of better days to come

A car was out of the question

everyone cycled to work and the shops

Black, grey and a sooty white were the colours

which pervaded the scene

But we believed in a better future

 

Seventy five years later we now have food banks

warm banks, the ever present threat of no power

The future is grim and we are at war again

The dictators have returned to create more havoc

as many colours have faded and all is dark 

and dismal once again

Our leaders exemplify mediocrity

and possess a myopic vision of the future

They are exempt our state as they are well fed and well paid

The people have lost all faith in institutions

We have moved from the ruins of war

through wealth and plenty

only to return to misery and near poverty

All things are only by comparison