When 40,000 of our people
catch the plague every day
and official reports tell us that
the shabby man in a PM’s suit
deliberately let it happen
but has now anyway
gone on holiday
so nobody asks him
a single damn question,
it is important to remember
this is not normal.
When there are government ministers
rolling stoned around nightclubs,
wearing invisible bullet-proof
super injunction armour
so that nobody can discuss
their bulging black pupils,
as the BBC reporter
hangs off their arm like tinsel
from a rancid Christmas tree,
it is important to remember
this is not normal.
When the police are found guilty
of covering up murder,
the words Institutionally Corrupt
oozing like fresh blood
from a mown-down inquiry,
the police chief behind the wheel,
who is then quickly shielded,
it is important to remember
this is not normal.
When the truth has been bludgeoned,
bundled dazed into the cellar;
when everybody sees it
but no-one talks about it,
when food and fuel run out
but it’s officially denied,
so the people have decided
that it hasn’t really happened
it is important to remember
this is not normal.
When the poison pen letters
leaching from front pages
are parrot-screeched by the mob
awash like waves on the street,
staining the pavement
with effluence and hatred
it is important to remember
this is not normal,
until one grey day
just like any other
steadily, secretly
it is.
Harry Gallagher
