The leaders who will not lead
oblivious of oblivion
of the self serving rhetoric
and blinkered ideals
descending the spiral of
regression to chaos
learning nothing from history
clinging to dreams
born from their colonial pasts
where privilege and
exploitation served their greed
and favoured the few.
Rose tinted memories nurtured
by the dung heap
of a squalid past of inequality
when served by the
servitude of little countries
and coloured nations
the slaves and the immigrants
beaten and abused
riches plundered natural resources
consumed and exported
jewels in the crown emerald isles
sugar cane plantations
oil in the ground tea leaves
cocoa shells diamond
mines people for cheap labour
Gold Coast lives
For their ideal of their union
they reject the other
the peace keeper of the continent
for the pride of lions
reality an abstract concept in
the fiction of hubris
the scary story to sell the lie
fear in the heart of
the margins of the class society
daily mirroring headlines
the scaremongering sensation
front page propaganda
the words on the side of a bus
bravado of a blonde
They said it would not happen
that sense would
prevail and that gamble of David
would secure him
in his number ten bed only to
rue the day so
May became the winter of discontent
and orange squeezed
the blue in the house of uncommon
for fear of green to
reject the circle of stars standing ground
to keep the union of
jack alone with the border the crown
and the bulldog pride.
-Ciaran Burke