Black trade.

 

I built the society you live in child.
I worked the pits, the ships, the roads
and buggerall thanks I get from the likes of you.
I am a black trade boy.
Proud and true.
A blue collar worker.
I am not like you.

You abuse the country my taxes built.
This welfare state you call your own is mine and my brothers.
We are the ones who built the welfare state from our labours.
My wages paid for the house I own.
This is no investment.
This is my home.

You want money from the many to the few.
You are a fool my boy.
That few is you.
The machinist, the warehouse man, the typist, the receptionist.
We are the ones who built this country.
We are the many that you abuse.

Take your attitude and shove it hard.
Vlad the Impaler had a use for you.
Learn manners and learn humility.
And,I repeat once more,
the ones who built this country are the poor you despise.
The shame is yours not mine.

Andy Fox 161217

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The machine age.

First they made the Spinning Jenny.
No more weaving by hand.
I joined with my weaver brothers.
I became a factory man.

At first I was a harvester.
I swung my scythe across the land.
The farmer bought a horse drawn machine.
I guided that across the field.

My father was a carter man.
I followed him into the trade.
Men replaced horses with engines.
A lorry driver I became.

I dug the ditches.
I repaired the  fences.
I made drystone walls.
I but an unskilled labourer.
No bloody use at all.

They took  my loom.
I adapted.
They took my scythe.
I lead the team that pulled the machine.
They took my cart and made it into a wagon.
I drove the wagon.

Man made machines that took away my living.
I  adapted to the new ways.
They made new machines.
I out lived the men who made them.
And as for the machines?
I out drank them one and all.

Andy Fox 240617

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Machine age.

Once we were hunters.
Once we were gatherers.
Once we worked to live.
We had no choice.

Once we were free.
Once we were slaves.
Once we made things
and we earned money for our families.

I worked in the mines and in the shipyards.
I was the carpenter and the blacksmith.
I worked designing churches.
I worked the fields.

Once we had community.
We had bosses and we had rules.
Once we were workers not drones.
Once was then and now.

Andy Fox 150117

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Happy.

The Labour Party aren’t happy.
The Lib-Dems aren’t happy.
Sein Fein are not at all happy.
The SNP are not happy.
Mr Cameron is unhappy.
Mr Corbyn is not happy.
EU politicians are not happy.
Remainers are not happy.
I voted Brexit.
I am happy

Andy Fox 24062016

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Future

Once I was the future of this country.
You did not support me.
You were not yet born.

Once my life could have been a gleaming light of hope for the many.
Instead it is a gentle glow for the few.
You know nothing of me or my dreams.

Once I held your future in my hands.
My time was taxed to pay for you.
You refuse thank me for that.

Once I could have built the land I wanted.
I paid for your vision instead.
Something you do not acknowledge.

Now you demand that I pay for your children’s future as I paid for yours.
Your children are your responsibility not mine.
I paid for the likes of you many times over.

Once I was the future of this country.
Now you tell me I am a burden of the state.
Your words suit your own lack of empathy.

I was the one who built this country through my taxes.
I put my head down and worked for a living.
I see no reason that you cannot do the same.

Andy Fox 240715

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Free Scotland. 2015.

Free Scotland. 2025.

President for life of Free Scotland Nicola Sturgeon looked in disgust at the email sent to her. “Another English telling me I have betrayed them.”
Bruce McKenzie,her advisor,looked at the name of the email writer. “I hardly think that somebody by the name of Jock Stewart is going to be English.”
Nicola glared at him. Her lips were thin and quite bloodless. “No true Scot would write to me saying that I,leader of the SNP for life, had betrayed them. That means they must be English or an English sympathiser which is the same thing in my book.”
“Nicola you cannot keep blaming the English” said Bruce.
“I can if I want.” said Nicola. “They didn’t let us keep the pound. They didn’t let us use their banks as lenders of last resort. They left us with a ten billion pound hole in our finances then they closed three quarters of the UK civil service offices and relocated the work,but not the workers,to England .And they closed the borders to free movement of goods and people. Hells tits Bruce there are people trying to get across the border but they keep sending them back here!”
“The UK classes them as economic migrants not asylum seekers.” said Bruce. “And the UK had every legal right to move their Ministry’s to within UK borders.”
“That’s a lie!” said Nicola hotly. “The English were always racist to us pure Scots. The English are a mongrel race and act on pure jealousy. And they are keeping us out of the United States of Europe. They have no right !”
“Have you seen the results of the UK referendum on letting us back into the UK?” said Bruce. “95% turnout. 90% NO vote.”
“You are joking? And they call that democracy? Utter crap.” Nicola looked disgusted.”The English government should have let us rejoin the UK on the terms we set.”
“ There is no English government there is only the UK government.They did not agree with your terms. They let the UK public decide.“What do we know about democracy?” said Bruce. “We declared UDI.”
“We had no choice.” said Nicola. “They wouldn’t give us a third referendum.”
“Can you blame them?” said Bruce. “The second referendum was a 70% No vote.”
“Bloody traitors.” said Nicola. “Bloody English traitors. They sent our MPs home in a prison van. A prison van! Bastards. Even I cannot travel to London and I am President for life of Scotland.”
Bruce smiled. “President of a one party state with half the population of London and a debt the size of the entire UK. Anyway it is no longer my problem. You are no longer my problem.”
“What do you mean?” asked Nicola.
“You never listened to my advice.” said Bruce. “I said declaring UDI was a mistake. I said that ignoring the results of the second independence referendum was a mistake. Hells tits you didn’t even listen to me when I said that moving the bloody Parliament to this shit hole called Inverness was a mistake! My wife is Australian .I applied for an Australian passport and have been accepted. There is one last flight leaving Scotland for the USE. We will be on it.” Bruce smiled. “As an Australian citizen there is fuckall you can do to stop me leaving. If you try your cops will arrest you. Bye bye Wee Nicky. I am so the fuck out of here. It is just a shame nobody else can. You made this unholy mess. You had better learn to live with it.” Bruce paused and looked around the room. “This is nicknamed the fuhrer bunker. I used to wonder why.” Bruce gave a wintry smile. “You dropped ‘your people’ right in the shit Ms Sturgeon. Now you have to live with it. Goodbye.”
“You cannot say that!” Nicola glared at him. “Scotland is a free country. Free of the shackles of the English.”
“You wanted out of the UK but demanded to keep Sterling. You wanted out of the UK but wanted to stay in the USE. You wanted out of the UK but demanded that the UK kept pouring money into Scotland. You did not listen when people told you it would not happen. You demanded open borders and free trade. Both the UK and the USE said no.” said Bruce calmly
“They should have given us what they wanted.” said Nicola. “They had no right to refuse our requests.”
“Requests? Demands more like.” said Bruce. “You bit the Lions tail. Why were you so surprised when it bit you? You learned nothing from your mistakes. You have ruined Scotland. Not the English .Not the UK. Not even the USE. You alone. Not that it matters to me. G’day Nicky. “ Bruce left. The policeman outside the door smiled as he watched him lock the door. “All set son?” said Bruce.
“All set dad.” said Bruce Junior. “I have set our escort to Edinburgh. As soon as we get inside the airport perimeter and on the other side of customs we will be on UK soil and free of this mad bitch. Freedom here we come.”
“Freedom.” said Bruce. “Once the call of the SNP. People outside Scotland used to call it a cult. We used to say they were fools.” Bruce looked at his son. “We were wrong.”

Andy Fox 16 05 2015

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Dare.

Talk to me.
Don’t tell me anything.
Just talk to me.

Talk to me whilst I get pissed on Raspberry Cidre.
Tell me things while I follow that poison with Pear.
Tell me of your travels of the past few months dear.
I will listen even while I don’t hear.

Listen to the alcohol when I tell you I miss you.
In vino veritas runs the tale.
Listen to me while my sober side hides in embarrassment.
Do not listen to a word that I say.

I have cleared two bags full of clothes I don’t fit in.
My body and my back cries Rest.
I have a wall to paper over and another to plaster.
But here I sit getting pissed.

Talk to me of the things you have seen dear.
Let us exchange our tales of woe.
That will be it for another year dear.
Dare I tell you I miss you the most?

Andy Fox 18015

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Half a mile.

Put your foot to the floor and raise the revolutions.
Let’s get the old girl clear of this mud.
Feel the wheels spinning but keep the old bitch moving.
Shout like a loon if you must.

Feel her sliding through axle deep gloopiness.
Don’t let up that pedal or we’re lost.
Hear the engine screaming defiance to the monster.
Just half a mile to go and we’re done.

One final effort and we slide onto tarmac.
We raise two fingers high and we shout.
“You didn’t beat us this time though you tried your bloody hardest.
Goodbye you old bastard.We’re gone! ”

Andy Fox 191214

Wheel deep mud V a Sprinter flatbed..
Oh and a determined driver..

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Mine to fight.

This is my fight.
Because this is my mind this has to be my fight.
The darkness comes in waves but this is how it has to be.
Just me.

These are my emotions tussling for supremacy.
This is my mind at war with itself.
My body is putting weight on and hiding.
It is leaving my mind to fight itself alone.

I am pissed off at myself.
I am angry at myself.
I wish things were different.
Wishing changes nothing.

That is truly the rub.
Wishing changes nothing.
I am caught up in a war.
My war.

Some days are better than others.
This is one of the better ones.
Please leave me alone to deal with my blues.
They are mine to fight.
They are mine alone.

Andy Fox 070914

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Patriot Games.

How I wish it was September and all the votes were in.
When the ghastly apparatchik of El Salmond had been slain
and the SNP lay scattered in the winds.
How the Nats will cry that it was all a fix
and anyone who voted no is a traitor to the cause.

How I wish it was October and new elections were in the air.
The SNP lays divided into factions.
The Salmonds and the Sturgeons are at each others throats.
The UK stays whole and all the better for it.
The people have spoken and they stay UK.

How I wish it was November.
Saint Andrews day.
Raise the flag high.
Raise the Union Jack.
God save the queen and all that.

Here’s to the future and raise your glass to the past.
Salute all those who fought to keep Britain great.
Raise your glass to those who kept the UK as one.
We will have no more scoundrels playing the patriot game.

Andy Fox 120714

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