Solstice

A too-brief day, and now the longest night
Has fallen. Turns the year, and so we stand
Out on the edge, as strangers to the light
That lately warmed our faces, hearts and land.
How carelessly we passed those long, bright days;
Beneficence we took for granted, thought
Would never end. We did not stop to gaze
In wonder on their beauty as we ought.
And now those days are all gone down. The wheel
Has slowly and inexorably rolled –
Implacable, stern, deaf to all appeal –
Down to this place of sunless, shadowed cold.
We must hold fast, though all hope seems forlorn.
The darkest hour descends before the dawn.

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Refusenik

I’m told to get behind it,
Lay down my arms, don’t fight:
Behold! The sunlit uplands
Are even now in sight.
Come! Join the great adventure
And shape our destiny;
A grand and glorious vision
For those with eyes to see.

No. I will not stand with you,
Won’t rally to your cause;
Won’t help you light your bonfire
Of long-established laws.
Go on and brand me traitor
Or enemy within:
I won’t abandon reason
For fantasies and spin.

I’ll never take your shilling
I won’t march to your drum;
Don’t call me to your colours,
Or summon me to come
And fall in step beside you
Then follow where you lead;
You’re seeking useful idiots:
I’m not the man you need.

Don’t try to keep on pulling
Your wool over my eyes.
I haven’t drunk your Kool Aid
Or swallowed all your lies.
The road that you have chosen
Leads to ruin for this land.
Get thee behind me, Brexit:
Your end is close at hand.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about passports or people; some of us just don’t think colour matters.” James O’Brien, LBC Radio.