and this…

is for those politicians and journalists
who will now sing the praises
of life spent in public service

is for those politicians and journalists
who will now sing the praises
of life spent in public service

who are indifferent to nurses
at food banks, care not for civil servants
who cannot heat their homes

remain silent about pensioners
lying in their own piss
in corridors in A&E

who will never say they met
a dinner lady once, how she
was a wonderful wonderful woman

who never stood in the rain at the gates
to the crem, awaiting a coffin,
offering heartfelt condolences
to family and friends.

© Steve Pottinger

also published by Culture Matters on their website