The Mask of Tyranny 2021
As I slept quite peacefully
A virus came from across the sea
And with great upheaval it led me
To walk and contemplate liberty
I met murder as I steadied my pace
he wore a mask across his face
full of pride and righteously
he claimed he sought to protect me
yet his eyes displayed an expression grim
like the billionaires who enabled him
all were fat and well they might
be in admirable plight
for one by one and two by two
they acquired human bones to chew
Then came Fraud and i had seen
in his hand an emergency vaccine
his big tears he wept so well
which turned to mill-stones as they fell
and the little children who
round his feet played to and fro
thinking every tear a gem
had their brains knocked out of them
clothed in this new religion, as with light
and from the shadows with financial might
Hypocrisy came in to view
with a promise to save me and you
and many more destructions played
in this ghastly masquerade
Experts, Politicians and Philanthropists
demanded compliance no one should resist
Then came Tyranny at a run
on the back of Covid he did come
fuelled by greed when his mask slipped
he bought with him the Apocalypse
declaring with unbridled glee
now your bodies belong to me
letting out an almighty roar
FOR I AM GOD AND KING AND LAW
with a pace sanctimonious and fast
over Europe he did pass
crushing notions of freedom
causing division in every kingdom
his soldiers each equipped with syringe
brought hope to which the flock did cling
populations gave up their arms
this new god to would save them from harm
Flushed by glorious triumph they
rode into England proud and gay
drunk as with intoxication
enforcing lonely isolation
planting seeds of division and hate
those who opposed they would mandate
from this virus we should cower and hide
yet 99% of those infected survived
over fields and towns from sea to sea
Passed the pageant swift and free
Tearing up and locking down
discarded masks littered every town
and many with panic in their eyes
felt terror in their own hearts rise
hearing the tempestuos cry
Of the triumph of Tyranny
The devout all cried in unity
and parroted without irony
Tyranny we bow to thee
for you alone have set us free
And Tyranny, the Skeleton,
Bowed and grinned to every one,
As well he might his indoctrination
Had cost millions to the nation
As he stood at the palace Gates
flanked by billionaires, his mates
with his sceptre, crown, and globe,
wearing gold-inwoven robe.
his newly purchased slaves he sent that hour
To seize upon the Bank and Tower,
Proceeding with news of another variant
To instruct his corrupt Parliament
and it became clear to see
democracy was a fallacy
with the advent of Omicron
all notion of respect was gone
and those who questioned... something's wrong
they were labelled sad morons
those who sought to avoid the jab
were viewed as dangerous, evil, mad
fear now controlled peoples minds
indoctrinated to comply
for six months boosters the faithful lurched
to top up a vaccine they weren't convinced worked
Tyranny was now the norm
the majority of course conformed
those who continued to question why
were simply instructed to 'cough and die'
When one fled past, a maniac maid,
And her name was Hope, she said:
But she looked more like Despair,
And she cried out in the air:
`My father Time is weak and grey
With waiting for a better day;
See how idiot-like he stands,
Fumbling with his palsied hands!
`He has had child after child,
And the dust of death is piled
Over every one but me--
Misery, oh, Misery!'
Then she lay down in the street,
Right before the horses' feet,
Expecting, with a patient eye,
Murder, Fraud, and Tyranny.
When between her and her foes
A mist, a light, an image rose,
Small at first, and weak, and frail
Like the vapour of a vale:
Till as clouds grow on the blast,
Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
And glare with lightnings as they fly,
And speak in thunder to the sky,
It grew -- a Shape arrayed in mail
Brighter than the viper's scale,
And upborne on wings whose grain
Was as the light of sunny rain.
On its helm, seen far away,
A planet, like the Morning's, lay;
And those plumes its light rained through
Like a shower of crimson dew.
With step as soft as wind it passed
O'er the heads of men -- so fast
That they knew the presence there,
And looked, -- but all was empty air.
As flowers beneath Christmas snow waken,
As stars from Night's loose hair are shaken,
As waves arise when loud winds call,
Thoughts sprung where'er that step did fall.
And the prostrate masses
Looked -- and ankle-deep in masks,
Hope, that maiden most serene,
Was walking with a quiet mien:
And Tyranny, the ghastly birth,
Lay dead earth upon the earth;
The Horse of Death tameless as wind
Fled, and with his hoofs did grind
To dust the murderers thronged behind.
A rushing light of clouds and splendour,
A sense awakening and yet tender
Was heard and felt -- and at its close
These words of joy and fear arose
As if their own indignant Earth
Which gave the sons of England birth
Had felt their blood upon her brow,
And shuddering with a mother's throe
Had turnèd every drop of blood
By which her face had been bedewed
To an accent unwithstood,--
As if her heart had cried aloud:
`Men of England, heirs of Glory,
Heroes of unwritten story,
Nurslings of one mighty Mother,
Hopes of her, and one another;
`Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you --
Ye are many -- they are few.
`What is Freedom? -- ye can tell
That which slavery is, too well --
For its very name has grown
To an echo of your own.
`'Tis to work and have such pay
As just keeps life from day to day
In your limbs, as in a cell
For the tyrants' use to dwell,
`So that ye for them are made
to work to toil and serenade,
With or without your own will bent
To their defence and nourishment.
`'Tis to see your children weak
With their mothers pine and peak,
When the winter winds are bleak,--
They are dying whilst I speak.
`'Tis to hunger for such diet
As the rich man in his riot
Casts to the fat dogs that lie
Surfeiting beneath his eye;
`'Tis to let the Ghost of Gold
Take from Toil a thousandfold
More than e'er its substance could
In the tyrannies of old.
`Paper coin -- that forgery
Of the title-deeds, which ye
Hold to something of the worth
Of the inheritance of Earth.
`'Tis to be a slave in soul
And to hold no strong control
Over your own wills, but be
All that others make of ye.
`And at length when ye complain
With a murmur weak and vain
'Tis to see the Tyrant's crew
Ride over your wives and you--
Blood is on the grass like dew.
`Then it is to feel revenge
Fiercely thirsting to exchange
Blood for blood -- and wrong for wrong --
Do not thus when ye are strong.
`Birds find rest, in narrow nest
When weary of their wingèd quest;
Beasts find fare, in woody lair
When storm and snow are in the air,
`Asses, swine, have litter spread
And with fitting food are fed;
All things have a home but one--
Thou, Oh, Englishman, hast none!
`This is Slavery -- savage men,
Or wild beasts within a den
Would endure not as ye do--
But such ills they never knew.
`What art thou Freedom? O! could slaves
Answer from their living graves
This demand -- tyrants would flee
Like a dream's dim imagery:
Thou art not, as impostors say,
A shadow soon to pass away,
A superstition, and a name
Echoing from the cave of Fame.
For the labourer thou art bread,
And a comely table spread
From his daily labour come
In a neat and happy home
`Thou art clothes, and fire, and food
For the trampled multitude--
No -- in countries that are free
Such starvation cannot be
As in England now we see.
`To the rich thou art a check,
When his foot is on the neck
Of his victim, thou dost make
That he treads upon a snake.
`Thou art Justice -- ne'er for gold
May thy righteous laws be sold
As laws are in England -- thou
Shield'st alike the high and low
`Thou art Wisdom -- Freemen never
Dream that God will damn for ever
All who think those things untrue
Of which Priests make such ado.
`Thou art Peace -- never by thee
Would blood and treasure wasted be
As tyrants wasted them, when all
Leagued to quench thy flame in Gaul.
`What if English toil and blood
Was poured forth, even as a flood?
It availed, Oh, Liberty,
To dim, but not extinguish thee.
`Thou art Love -- the rich have kissed
Thy feet, and like him following Christ,
Give their substance to the free
And through the rough world follow thee,
`Or turn their wealth to arms, and make
War for thy belovèd sake
On wealth, and war, and fraud--whence they
Drew the power which is their prey.
`Science, Poetry, and Thought
Are thy lamps; they make the lot
Of the dwellers in a cot
So serene, they curse it not.
`Spirit, Patience, Gentleness,
All that can adorn and bless
Art thou -- let deeds, not words, express
Thine exceeding loveliness.
`Let a great Assembly be
Of the fearless and the free
On some spot of English ground
Where the plains stretch wide around.
`Let the blue sky overhead,
The green earth on which ye tread,
All that must eternal be
Witness the solemnity.
`From the corners uttermost
Of the bonds of English coast;
From every hut, village, and town
Where those who live and suffer moan
For others' misery or their own.
`From the workhouse and the prison
Where pale as corpses newly risen,
Women, children, young and old
Groan for pain, and weep for cold--
`From the haunts of daily life
Where is waged the daily strife
With common wants and common cares
Which sows the human heart with tares--
`Lastly from the palaces
Where the murmur of distress
Echoes, like the distant sound
Of a wind alive around
`Those prison halls of wealth and fashion,
Where some few feel such compassion
For those who groan, and toil, and wail
As must make their brethren pale--
`Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold--
`Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free--
`Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.
`Let the corrup tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry.
`Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses' heels.
`Let the fixèd bayonet
Gleam with sharp desire to wet
Its bright point in English blood
Looking keen as one for food.
`Let the horsemen's scimitars
Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
Thirsting to eclipse their burning
In a sea of death and mourning.
`Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,
`And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armèd steeds
Pass, a disregarded shade
Through your phalanx undismayed.
`Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute,
`The old laws of England -- they
Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo -- Liberty!
`On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.
if the billionaires the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,--
What they like, that let them do.
`With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.
`Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.
`Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand--
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.
`And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.
`And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.
`And these words shall then become
Like Oppression's thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again -- again -- again--
`Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number--
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many -- they are few.'
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