Here is a poem I wrote many years ago in the early 90's exploring how easy it is for so-called 'civilised' society to slip into savagery. After watching the news all evening and following #londonriots on Twitter I think I should rename this piece 'Savage in a Hoodie' instead, although these mongrels are not fighting for survival, they are 'fighting' for Nikes and plasma tv's!
Some people consider my poems to be too dark, morbid even. Maybe they are but I only tell it as I see it. I see nothing to be gained by sugar coating the truth, even when it is
a painful truth. When you add it all up; the financial crisis, the food crisis, the climate crisis, the water crisis, the energy crisis,
the resource crisis, the population crisis - is the world not a dark and
morbid place? Still, no need to get depressed about it. I'm still an optimist, even though I know awful things are going to happen...
Some-times it really sucks to be right...
Savage in a Suit
You think you are so civilised
But it is time you realised
How easily cracks can appear
In your so finely groomed veneer
We’re just a couple of meals away
From anarchy, so experts say
I’m sure you doubt this can be true
So I’ll try to enlighten you
The basic instinct in us all
Before which all the others fall
Is that to keep yourself alive
At all costs you have to survive
Imagine now some future date
When all the world’s long pent-up hate
Erupts into the final war
The Establishment exists no more
The things you take for granted now
They are no longer there somehow
No petrol for your fancy car
Well, am I getting through so far?
No food will reach your local store
Your power and water flow no more
Gangs and looters roam the night
Now there is no electric light
But things will go from bad to worse
With worthless money in your purse
No matter, there’s no food to buy
And anyway, the end is nigh
Soon shortages will start to bite
Out on the streets the people fight
For any food that does arrive
Remember, they have to survive
At first the law enforcers try
But soon they start to wonder why
They bother with a fruitless quest
They’re in the same boat as the rest
And that is when the end will start
When our society falls apart
No-one to keep the mob in check
The rats have left the sinking wreck
They talk of concrete jungles now
But they just don’t compare somehow
To millions of our charming race
Competing in a real rat race
Countless starving millions dying
On the streets the corpses lying
And those unlucky ones alive
With only one thought, to survive
Could you survive this brave new world
When anarchy's flag is unfurled?
Or would you just curl up and die
Cowering as your children cry?