Treasury Tales

Red box of exchequer delights open

To reveal a tax on the tooth fairy,

With fruit plucked off the magic money tree,

Treasure borrowed from the lair of a dragon

Or the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end.

Raise taxes here, then lower others there,

Increase benefits trying to be fair,

Only to leave others trying to defend

The little they have got. The dragon’s loot

Will move off-shore, the tooth fairy replaced

By a drone, the pot of gold can’t be traced,

While the money tree’s torn up by the root.

All fiscal tales told, Labour’s and Tories’,

Turn out to be merely fairy stories.

D. A.

Treasury Tales

Red box of exchequer delights open

To reveal a tax on the tooth fairy,

With fruit plucked off the magic money tree,

Treasure borrowed from the lair of a dragon

Or the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end.

Raise taxes here, then lower others there,

Increase benefits trying to be fair,

Only to leave others trying to defend

The little they have got. The dragon’s loot

Will move off-shore, the tooth fairy replaced

By a drone, the pot of gold can’t be traced,

While the money tree’s torn up by the root.

All fiscal tales told, Labour’s and Tories’,

Turn out to be merely fairy stories.

D. A.

COP…out

Assemble fifty thousand delegates,

From around the world. Ask what the price is,

When considering the climate crisis,

Of convening fourteen days of debates.

Then there’s the press corps and TV news,

Social media that requires broad banding,

The wining, the dining, the glad handing:

A towering Babel of discrepant views.

Far, far too many are still enraptured

With fossil fuels and profits they’re making.

For all the hot air there’s no mistaking

That not a gram of carbon is captured

After the fortnight, despite pressing need.

Just lots of motions with nothing agreed.

D. A.

No…

‘No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs’, set in quotes

From a world and a time long gone, or so

It might be presumed, or should it now go

None of those arriving in rubber boats?

Ballistics do not respect borders,

As poverty pays no heed to flags flown,

Changing climate means sea levels have grown

Dangerously high; by such disorders

People, not migrants, are forced to retreat,

To abandon homes, to cross stormy seas

Hoping for better, but no guarantees,

Somewhere fairness is the common conceit.

Meanwhile, politicians are none too slow

At taking advantage of saying, ‘NO!’

D. A.

No…

‘No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs’, set in quotes

From a world and a time long gone, or so

It might be presumed, or should it now go

None of those arriving in rubber boats?

Ballistics do not respect borders,

As poverty pays no heed to flags flown,

Changing climate means sea levels have grown

Dangerously high; by such disorders

People, not migrants, are forced to retreat,

To abandon homes, to cross stormy seas

Hoping for better, but no guarantees,

Somewhere fairness is the common conceit.

Meanwhile, politicians are none too slow

At taking advantage of saying, ‘NO!’

D. A.