All Change (Poetry)

Nothing is like it was these days
‘all change’ the current senseless craze
not change for reasons sound and good
but whim and profit understood

to be the motive like as not
for cheap and shoddy — swift to rot
nothing now is meant to last
well-made’s a fad that’s surely past

With fickle tastes and shallow lives
who gives a damn for what survives
use-up wear-out then throw away
‘make-do and mend’ was yesterday

No time for old-style patch ‘n’ glue
restoring things to look like new
and keep what there’s affection for —
familiar things that reassure

Those heirlooms handed-down instil
a sense of value — fit the bill
while ‘new improved’ (four times the price)
misleading marketing device

isn’t better or ‘unique’
and likely will not last the week
the rules of commerce — buy & sell
have lost all fairness — shot to hell —

illusion packaging plus gab
disguise the half-full plastic bag
the customer’s no longer king
and many buy most anything

those glossy adverts tell them to
except for a discerning few
who’ve hung on to some common sense
saving pounds by counting pence

They know a bargain from a scam
unfooled by mutton dressed as lamb
acknowledge quality is found
on higher moral trading ground

resisting change for its own sake
and service genuine not fake
so, immortal words to rearrange —
‘there is no loss — there’s only change’

Whoever said it failed to add
that too much change can turn out bad
and wiser minds look back because
the world worked best the way it was