The Devil Ate Your Hamburgers – Written February 2026 (Aged 50)

The Devil Ate Your Hamburgers

You met the devil
as you ate hamburgers;
and the devil watched on,
as you won another gold medal
and chanted
the name of your country.
And you became intimate
with the devil
when you decided
only to look in —
when you decided
education was best served
by having
no national consensus.
And you cosied up
to the devil
when your evangelical religions
became false.
And now,
the devil warms your bed;
and the devil
ate your hamburgers.
It’s clear —
the devil has emigrated
to your country;
with fiery card,
it has truly moved in.
It has lied to you
about the collapse
of capitalism.
The devil
has turned your country
into a collective cult —
one
that now we see
is full of fault.
And now
you are melded
with the devil;
you hang on,
clinging to its coat,
and the devil
surely helped you
and guided you
when it came
to casting votes.
But you took yourself
down this road
when you believed
only you —
and only you —
could ever
be the best.

James Garratt – February 2026

More poems at
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More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/ (theboybehindtheglasses.com in Bing)

More poems from 2026
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-2026/ (theboybehindtheglasses.com in Bing)