On Benefits
The magistrates of Speenhamland decreed
No one should be too poor to eat, instead
A working wage too deficient for bread
Must be subsidised to meet that need.
Since then, two centuries and more have passed,
Yet pay and prices still remain mismatched,
Requiring governments to have hatched
All manner of benefits, such a vast
Complex web of doles, those magistrates
At the Pelican Inn would look askance
To see how little has been the advance
Of society, how progress abates
For however long workers delay
Rejecting reforms and seizing the day.
D. A.