You Too

~

it makes me choke

and want to wretch and spit,

hearing people banging on

about the past and those who

profited out of it,

as if their own lives gleam

are untouched by the grime,

and filthy stench of

human beings cheaply traded in 

another place, another time,

I’ve never owned a slave

killed a man or made a war,

I’m been nothing but a loyal

worker, husband, father, so 

what should I feel guilty for?

it strikes me that those who

scratch the scabs of the past,

are woke sixth-form politicos 

spilling forth in-vogue mantras

to a £3 Starbucks made to last

all afternoon, whilst bunking school

to google essays and copy factual shit,

whilst talking down those who

helped shape their world of privilege

with ipads, iphones, designer kit,

the past is for learning from

for shaping better things to come,

so, roll your sleeves up, do a shift

bang your own, not 

some other person’s drum

*

© Graham R Sherwood 01/24