Weekly Muse

Imagine, in a gaberdine,

Or even in a Dannimac,

The years you waited, mustard-keen,

For SMERSH to telephone you back,

The hours by the kitchen sink,

The minutes sitting on the khazi,

To hear a little rinky-dink

And get a message from the Stasi.

You grew a beard, you had a shave,

You tried out each designer stubble,

You craved the chance to misbehave

And get your country into trouble,

Until, one day, your dinner dry,

And fags no longer 3/6,

Ann Widdecombe, with hue and cry,

Accused you of some filthy tricks.

Your tea-bag shaken, milk unstirred,

And bust of Lenin still askew,

You tell reporters what you heard

They never thought you never knew.

The Berlin Wall was brick and mortar;

You called your tabby Chairman Miaow;

You wrote to Wigwam-By-The-Water.

The truth is outed! Where to now?

You take your notebook and your specs

To see the Liberal Democrats,

Where politics is just like sex

Between a pair of earnest gnats,

And watch a wizened fellow sob

Goodbye to a peculiar clique,

Surrendering his useless job

To a man with hamsters in each cheek.

Was it for this you hoarded memos

In case the Eastern beast arose?

The reason that you went on demos

In raincoats which your mother chose?

So now you trail Conservatives.

Smart-casual, they make a start

On storming brains like leaky sieves.

The politics of supermart,

The clipboards, flipcharts, seminars,

Are full of managerial guff.

Have you been beamed to Venus, Mars?

Was this why you were sleeping rough

On commons? Why, when films were

through

You sat on hands through national

anthem?

They like Cluedo, minus clue.

They're haunted by the ghost of

Grantham.

Incredulous, you shuffle on

To hear the Labour darling, Darling.

Is this where all the dogs have gone?

Is this where you will hear some

snarling?

A Very Great Report has shown

That children born inside a ditch

Or living very near the bone

Are seldom likely to be rich.

You nod, perhaps. More education!

Why give the paupers fifty quid?

How healthy is the British nation

If it won't read the Aeneid?

The Seekers fill your ancient head.

You sense the truth in their refrain:

Now The Conference Is Over

We Will Never Meet Again.

One hand is on your mobile phone,

Your Sophie Wessex shirt is wrecked,

Your heart is like a pumice stone.

You call the KGB, defect.