High Time (Poetry)

Rome is burning! Rome is burning!
Poor old Nero’s lost the plot
the government is in confusion
and now his fiddle’s all he’s got

Democracy’s long-dead and buried
and no one jumps to tend its grave
while papers fuel the conflagration
the turncoats run, a few stand brave

Who is there with the kind of passion
to raise a spark of British pride?
The crowds are massing round the temple
in hope that God’s still on our side

Well overdue — this need for cleansing
as flames burn fiercer day by day
the hour’s past for more delaying
high time the people had their say

***

London’s burning! London’s burning!
now BJ’s overplayed his hand
the game of Blind Man’s Bluff is fickle
the whole affair’s a one-night stand

With reference to this article in the Guardian.