People Forget Their Values

People Forget Their Values

people –
have forgotten
their social justice credentials
confidentiality –
they have forgotten equality
in a system that promotes inequality
but give them –
one more vote
and they will happily –
clamber back into the boat
give them an oar
give them directions
did we not believe –
in some kind of shared values
i thought, we are there
to oppose discrimination
and fight for the oppressed
be agents of change
and agents so purposely dressed
people have forgotten –
what it really means
but how often have, ‘the left’
found itself composed of opposing teams
it is why they struggle to cause a revolution
that is what it means
and then –
we all lose our progressive dreams


James Garratt – Sunday 2nd June 2019