Learning my history

We are taught about ol’ Henry and his six wives                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       But not about Northern working people’s lives                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                We are taught all about Queen Victoria too                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         But not about what happened that day at Peterloo
We are taught about Harold and the arrow in his eye                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        But not about the subsequent Northern genocide                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            We are told how our industries all began to fail                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 But not about the Pioneers from Rochdale   
             
We are taught about the Empire when Britannia ruled the waves                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    But not about all the Geordies who helped to free the slaves                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      We are taught how the Union Jack was unfurled                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  But not about those who worked for a fairer world
We are taught the National Anthem, Rule Britannia an’ all                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 But not about the songs from Tyneside Music Hall                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         We are told that the miners were the enemy within                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              But nothing of their art or the songs they used to sing
We must learn who to admire and who to look up to                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              In the great hierarchy and the place for me and you                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Learn to be a well-oiled cog in someone else’s wheel                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Never think too much about just how we think and feel
My family never sat in a splendid royal carriage                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Never found wealth and fame through birth or marriage                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Tales of kings and queens say nothing of my family                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I want to learn my history, only that can set me free
Peter Sagar