Union Songs
Found and lost
A poem by John Tomlinson©2006 John Tomlinson
Angels dancing on my conscience
devils playing with my mind,
fanciful ideas: daydreaming nonsense,
portentous thoughts defined.
Authority’s extended licence,
pleading hands and deeply lined,
jumbled ideas all out of sequence
to asylum seekers we are blind.
Tangled lives and lost embraces
anguished times and razor wire
happy yet distorted faces
terrified but with hope afire.
Despatching people willy nilly,
preventing them from reaching shore.
Welcoming the gold encrusted,
rejecting desperate frightened poor.
Sending planes to watch ships sinking
doing nothing for the drowning,
we can’t claim that’s good thinking
I can see the gods are frowning.
Then at last gaunt undertakers
clean their best your cold remains,
leaving you to meet your maker
and justify such moral stains.
Angels dancing on my conscience
devils playing with my mind,
fanciful ideas: daydreaming nonsense
reality is hard to find.
Notes
Many thanks to John Tomlinson for permission to add this poem to the Union Songs collection
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory