Bigger Than Ben Hur: Poem: Hymn to the Disillusioned (1st Draft)

Friday, 12 September 2014

Poem: Hymn to the Disillusioned (1st Draft)

Days out from the Election,

all their venal qualities

and slimy patriotism to the fore,

promises bought with our own money

and they wonder why we think

they are interchangeable

as they lick the boots of

their capitalist masters.

POET'S NOTE: This cannot be construed as election material as they tried to say about Greenpeace's Climate Voter campaign and I believe the High Court has now ruled in Greenpeace's favour in the case brought before the High Court.

Please bear in mind that I wrote this first draft in a Japanese takeaway shop on the back of some advertising blurb after listening to Radio New Zealand's "Focus on Politics" programme. So it is rough but impassioned.

I have felt that this 2014 election campaign has been one of mostly trivial nonsense and the sort of exchanges that would seem puerile even in a Kindergarten playground.

And politicians wring their hands about how disengaged young voters are. Perhaps if they saw some honesty and dignity displayed by their politicians and so-called leaders, young voters might feel inspired to exercise their democratic right.