Reckoning
A political poem about power, privilege, accountability, and the uneasy divide between ordinary people and those who rise into the corridors of political influence.
savage vultures encircle
“rotten Rayner,”
tax evader, freeloader —
nuanced,
but echoes
of the cronies before her.
she refers herself
to the ethics committee,
like me
referring myself
to HMRC
when someone’s
about to expose
my dodgy dealings.
working class or not,
once sucked
into the vortex
of executive power,
striding through
those halls
like nothing
else matters,
becoming a stranger
to the populous –
then the scales
of justice tilt
heavily the same
way every time:
one rule for youse only.
upwardly mobile.
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