Opinions can be ignored, mocked,

That's fair enough - satirists like Swift'd be lost -

Otherwise

and, of course,

No-one has the right not to be offended.

I am offended everyday

By the complacent, middle-class old

Bastards who hang on to every penny

And have the empathy of granite

And so easily condemn

Those poorer or less well-educated

Than them.

I love the novels of Dickens

For the way that he exposes hypocrisy,

Like a surgeon exposes the aorta,

His touch and tone take my breath away

He holds the note of truth

For so long. 

It ends up as a song.