Keep Calm and Carry On

First they came for the disability benefits…
Keep calm and carry on!
Or was that first?
First, didn’t we have unprecedented levels of stress,
mad highs hyped up to fever pitch
raging in run down towns with closed down pits?
Then they took away support for the victims:
adults on the Prozac,
children on the Ritalin…
Keep calm and carry on!

Then they came for the housing benefit,
but not before they sold off public housing stock
and propped up private prices,
mopped up the squatters,
dropped the mansion tax,
cropped the random acts of welfare
and left rows of boarded up bricked-up
homes-for-the-rats till the market picks up…
Keep calm and carry on!

They finally came for the concrete estate
whose balconies looked down on your back garden gate
you’ll have to live with temporary disturbance of drilling
while they put up new contemporary urban living,
but at least the noisy neighbours left.
They exposed the brick in the old launderette,
where they do flat whites and a retro chef.
Renters need 6 weeks upfront for that room with a view
in the old factory redeveloped into flats for the few
but segregation is nothing new,
rising resentment in the urban banlieues,
who’s going to be there when they come for you?
Keep calm and carry on!

The choice is yours on reality show fake-up,
hashtag twitter facebook face-off,
red button for victory, fight them on the x-box.
Dose disaster with nostalgia,
paper over with a poster,
be the envy of your friends,
make do, consume and spend.
Careless talk keeps capitalism alive
write a poem, win a prize.
It’s Topshop florals and tweeds as fashion thing,
they want the ‘50s without the rationing…
Keep calm and carry on!