John Gilpin was a citizen of credit and renown
A train band captain eek was he
of good ole London town....

Well John Gilpin is no longer
and london no more a town
but to be a true citizen
is worth of credit and renown.

the values, they have scuppered
many lost upon the track
of railroaded progression
with loads of looking back.
how can the train go forward
if it is facing abaft?
though it has two faces
it should be looking aft...

Speeding on wildly
garnering lots of profit and tax
it has no John Gilpin
that's why the screws are lax.
So turning the corner, going uphill
City bands all aglee
the train of good ole London
thinks it's heading to prosperity.

But lo, behold the signal
from the point at the top of the hill
is burning red for danger
warning the stokers to stand still.
reflect just for a moment
for a moment is but enough
to know that too much credit
is not a Midas touch.
False security: Fake morals and the like
are not the stuff from which a future is made
and printed notes of bond-age
cannot secure the bail.

Trains all going uphill
hoping to make the top
thinking that traveling upwards
they'll reach the final stop
but the Signalman is shouting
"No more trains" he says
the juice is gone from government
and the gravy train is dead.
It stopped but for a moment
that moment at the top of the hill
where the owners, passengers and linesmen
swallowed a bitter pill.

There below beneath them
an abyss was opened up.
yawning shaking billowing
into which they all did drop.
All that is save the few
who at the Stoker's warning
bailed out of the towns'ship
for themselves the booty keeping.

Booty of pension funds and investments
that did not to them belong
created by fear and foresight
borrowed from the strong
shored up by others savings
with 'ostrich' unions' and  ministers' aid
who did not know that going up
was really going down.

For you see, the top was really the bottom
and the peak at the back of the cap
so while they thought they were winning
they we losing all they'd got.

The moral of this ere story
is not very deep at all
it is that when you think you are climbing
you might be just heading for a fall.
so gird your loins for war
and tighten your belts one and all
'cause John Gilpin is no longer
and your backs to the LondonWall
where the Museum may not come alive - at night
but there is a lesson there true enough
it is that when the tough get going
then truly the going has got tough.