National Poetry Writing Month: Day Thirty, "The Status Quo"

This is the last poem for National Poetry Writing Month this year (even if it is posted a day too late). I would just like to say a huge thank you for taking the time to read some of my poems. I hope that you have found some of them enjoyable and they have captured your imagination. Writing a poem every day for such a long time is very difficult, but I am proud to have completed the challenge on my first attempt, and I am already considering possibilities for next April, to hopefully use this experience to produce a more experienced and defined month of poetry.

This final poem is deliberately provocative, and is set from the point of view of the common man in the not too distant future, reflecting on a society that we could well be looking at today. Perhaps there are ideas within it that you can relate to, or maybe you agree or disagree. I have tried to leave a level of vagueness to the notions to give you the chance to fill in the gaps and make it your own, while still providing a firm offering of my own reflections. I hope you enjoy this final poem.

These people are afraid of me,
I know what’s beneath their disguise.
For all the talk of raising standards and fulfilling pleas,
I know they hide behind broken alibies.
I find myself feeling frustrated
Their words so saturated with bullshit, I’m disgusted.
An isolated country whose problems are exaggerated,
By the clowns with so little drive, I’m sure they’ve been castrated.
It’s been the same message for countless years,
I’m sick of them spewing this filth down our ears.
Playing upon fears with a host of crocodile tears,
Strutting like heroic peacocks, expecting a bout of cheers.
They may claim to be our peers,
But they lack moral convictions with which to adhere.
Is it any wonder we are more likely to jeer,
When they finally visit here because it’s once again voting year?



Many of these people are so transparent,
They don’t really care or listen, that much is apparent.
It’s an attitude you must surely find abhorrent,
Is this unpleasantness truly inherent?
I don’t trust a society broken,
When we’ve seen screens smoking,
To cover the animals with decadence swollen.
Now in the wake of collapse,
Leaders scuffle to bring the nation under wraps.
But perhaps a relapse shall in time elapse,
And once more these pricks will lead us into a trap.
They’re blind, scrapping without definition,
Contending only because they want to better their own position,
But we all have recognition of their omissions,
And still we sit and listen to yet another rendition,
Of repeated faults and civil decomposition.



But now nationalists lay claim while the centre wane,
And upon each other they heap all the blame.
It’s pathetic to see so many so vain,
Fighting to get to the top of the chain.
These people are supposed to lead us,
And take us into better days thus.
Instead they enjoy the life built on our backs,
Stuffing themselves, regular fat cats.
Claiming they’ll put the nation on the right track,
But with scandals galore, a sense of justice is clearly lacked.
So if like me, you have lost all trust,
And fear that our values are being trampled into the dust,
Take a stand and your anger you must show,
Spread the word that we should not stoop so low.
I’m not asking you to overthrow,
But we must shake up the stagnating status quo.