By Angrytrainguy
Lefty Banks is angry
His bottle’s drained again
The paper that it’s dressed in
Is soaked in low-shelf gin
He drags out sheets of foolscap
From the armpit of his coat
He holds them in his one good hand
Clears the backwash from his throat
He stands up on a milk crate
On the street he’s forced to share
And spouts his careful rantery
To those who just don’t care…
[Oi you!]
It’s time to change your attitude
To fill the gap between
Insouciance and insolence
The place where satire’s seen
The practice of ironic fun
Of sarcastic overreach
The undoing of the arrogant
And the synapse-cheated leech
To point out who the bad guys are
To hold them to the light
To set their feet upon the fire
To start a different fight
Don’t wait for sewered airwaves
To empty of their blah
Of hubristic, twisted, lip jockeys
Bloat-babbling in the bar
The fat mouths
Glued to empty heads
Banging on and on and on
About nothing that they know about
About how they’d like us gone
The sharers and the carers
The queerers, and the blamed
The innocent, the curious
The halt, the blind, the lame
But we’re still here
Beneath the gaze
Of their hilltop cruelty
And the spew of blame and fear
and trash and lack of subtlety
But we will mount their barricades
And take them one by one
With wit and droll facetiousness
And the euphemistic pun.
[Or will we?]
I see darkness on the borderlines
I see gloom beyond the fence
An underwhelming prophet’s voice
That really makes no sense
Has crept in on our TV screens
It’s slipped beneath the door
It’s telling us we haven’t tried
And that is why we’re poor
Poor because we haven’t bought
The dreamy dreaming stuff
And if you think you’ve bought the dream
Then you haven’t bought enough
Because there’s more
there’s always more
Of effervescent slime
Of catastrophic impudence
Dull thud of wasted time
This you need and that you need
With this you will be free
To not chase that, you just can’t reach
Perfectability
But the smiling man has found it
His hair in perfect lines
A life change that’s beyond belief
If you could only read the signs
We open doors and windows
We let in airy air
And nobody will argue
Because no one really cares
Unless they can be taller
Unless they can be thin
Unless they can be winners of
A race that they’re not in
And all this todge is funnelled through
A lounge room rubbish bin.
[Or is it?]
Our leaders smirk and sneer at us
As they climb the pole of power
Blank faces hide the poisonous flaws
Of more ambition by the hour
They dwell in places silent
They keep us out of reach
With empty face and vacant stare
From the blatant pulpit preach
Of baffle-smoke and fuddle-fog
Obfuscation, cloud and lie
By saying all, they tell us nought
They sell what we can’t buy
With perfect strings of acronyms
They hide what they should show
Use GDP and EIS and EIEIO
And then they blame the listless
Who won’t salute the flag
They deride them as the shiftless
Whose behaviour is a drag
On riches we could all enjoy
If they showed a little spine
And got a job, it’s easy I do it all the time
And shiftily behind your back
They’re doing quiet deals
To shore up rich entitlements
To oil and grease their wheels
To ensure their class is privileged
To see their mates do well
They’ll open doors and pat some backs
There’s no one they won’t sell.
[Oi, oi, oi]
Draped in flags and slogans
The antis ante up
Incensed, they think they’re being forced
To sip from PC cups
‘Climate change is bollocks
Vaccines are a plot
Coal is good and wind is bad
And uranium is not
LG BT QI is sick
Just leave our kids alone
To find their way into the world
From lessons learned at home
Migrants and them refugees
Had better stay away
They’re not like us, we’re not like them
It’s the weird way that they pray
Government is way too big
And taxes are too high
We know they watch our every move
Backdoor us on the sly
We need our guns to save us
In the fight that’s going to come
Or they will just enslave us
And let their will be done.’
They turned up here because they fear
Their voices won’t be heard
As if they chose a diamond
And found it was a turd
Their jobs have gone
Their Super’s gone
Welfare is just cruel
Kids in crowded classrooms
In underfunded schools
No one can afford a house
For healthcare roll a dice
If you think you’re going to Uni
Best think about it twice.
We’re done. It’s over.
There’s nothing left to say
Beelzebub has shafted us
El Diablo’s had his way.
And you can stick round here
But there’s no way I will stay.
And that was it, he’d said his bit
He’d exhausted all his bait
Watched by cops, he grabbed his props
And stuffed them in his crate
The wig came off, the coat came off
The bottle carefully placed
A towel to wipe the grit and snot
He’d spread across his face
And there he was in fine cut suit
In fine white shirt and handmade boots
Both arms intact, a man remanned
A burnished gold chronometer
On the wrist of his right hand
He strolled down to the corner
To a Mercedes waiting there
To drive him back to Toorak
Where he’s lived for thirty years.
©angrytrainguy2017
