Balance Of Payments (Poetry)

The cold weather payment’s gone on booze and fags
we’re sitting in our not-so-gladsome rags
and watching the commercials — funeral plans
and cruises for the rich to foreign lands

We didn’t get a turkey roast this year
for bird flu’s on the rise, or so we hear
there’s not much on TV we really like
and to cap it all, the RM’s out on strike

So the welcome flood of greetings cards is slow
a dribble — not much festive cheer to show
more depressing news to further chill the day
as nurses join the action for more pay

Oh, it’s really not the Christmas we had planned
since our budget’s got completely out of hand
with the electric through the roof — we heat one room
and pass the bottle round to fight off gloom

The old folks used to yarn about the war
but this isn’t the same country they fought for
the way things are would spin them in their grave
with doubts this land’s worth all those lives to save