I minute poem 'BENEFITS' for Poets against apathy by the Firm of Poets

I wrote this to be a 1 minute poem about 'Benefits' to be part of FirmAgainstApathy leading up to the UK's May General Election 2015.

It was filmed as a quick run through prior to me doing it for the Sleaford Mods film coming out in October 2015, which of course I did much better!

Hope you enjoy this

if the above fails to play, click on this link
'Benefits'

Benefits - full poem [denotes cuts to make a one minute poem] 

I will pull myself up onto the butcher’s table
for You to pick your weekly cuts,
the Nation’s Rich deem
we no longer deserve our souls,
Every day we can be called forward to be inspected
whilst the rich do the ‘accepted’ thing,
cheat on paying their full taxes, a ‘cultural’ norm
to claim THEIR expected cash benefits,
and so YOU, the jealously ill,
are let loose,
to hound US
the poor, unemployed and disabled,
rallying to hunt us down,
the Media branded unworthy,
the head-boys calling their fags
to chase down the quarry,
to harry us, split us off,
in these ‘Benefit Games’
until we fall exhausted and broken
then rationally and fairly,
crushing our bones to make a pleasing sound,
encouraging the tearing of flesh from the fallen,
to lean the joy of spinning us again and again
on pins of unimportance, on pins of unimportance, on pins of unimportance,
[normalise these jaws of deviance
organising the Transport of our lives through
‘unexpected’ non-payments, water-boarding sanctions, poverty taxes}
so I will pull myself back up onto the butcher’s table
for YOU to view my weaknesses,
to ask again for all my intimate details,
to pick through austerity’s collateral
for your pound of flesh.

Jonathan Eyre   April 2015

More about Firm of Poets

@AFirmOfPoets #FirmAgainstApathy:
https://www.facebook.com/AFirmofPoets?fref=ts

More about the Sleaford Mods
http://www.sleafordmods.com/

Do you STOP soon enough?

Sally has a great blog and is a very fine blogger, and this question , also posted on an M.E. Community Facebook page triggered the following poem

http://sallyjustme.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/do-you-stop-soon-enough.html?showComment=1426499977159#c7560508562247173552
 
Thank you Sally.


With glass walls and ceilings all around

with glass walls and ceilings all around,
easy to shatter, wafer thin
often within reach but unseen,
to find, the shadow of 'soon enough',
is difficult with the mirages of doing,
boredom and necessity
rising above the horizon,
pulling up the next set of targets
to be examined and rejected as
'too much',
'too soon',
'that will be fine',
with this heady mixture
and underground currents
ready to tear at my legs
to pluck my thoughts away,
pulling the words from my throat
to cover them up in sand,
my feet cannot always find the firm ground,
touch the bottom of the pool,
I cannot always make sure
that I will not
drown tomorrow
through the actions
of today.
Do I maintain the count
of the steps I took today
compare them to yesterday, last week
or trust in how my body feels,
gauge its creaks as a miner
listening to the protests of pit-props?
Often I am drowning deep down,
I either swim
or die of thirst.
                                           Jonathan Eyre - March 16^th 2015

Moving off into the new year at last!

my latest finished poem, completed at Blank Page Industries writing space.
https://www.facebook.com/BlankPageIndustries

Freedom Walks
I take mobility scooters off path
hear the tyres tread over
woodland forest litter
the rustle of leaves stirred
with the hum
of torque from the
electric freedom generator
wheels squelch
breaking the hold
of grass obscured mud
ridged tyre tracks
across the backs of parkland
falsely portray my journey as regimented,
really this steed tilts my expectations
to the skies and beyond
as I scramble over
humps and dips of off-pitched country
feel the clip and clunk
under the frame
of rock and stone
breeching the Earth's surface.
I take mobility scooters off road,
off pavement,
off path
off centre,
off.

Jonathan Eyre Feb 2015.