What did I do ?

[Sir_Nigel]

What exactly did I do? What precisely did I say

that you feel the need to monitor me and take my rights away?

 

Have I murdered anybody? Or was my grievous sin

to carelessly throw paper in the ordinary bin?

 

Did I call for death and sacrifice to overthrow the state?

Or did I pay my motor tax that little bit too late?

 

Did I fly into a tower in a hijacked jumbo jet?

Or crave the simple pleasure of an indoor cigarette.

 

Was I ranting on a website for harsh despotic rule?

Or trying to get my children in a slightly better school

 

I’m not a new Bin Laden or a would-be Al Capone

Though admittedly I once did 33 in a 30 limit zone.

 

You want to hear my phone calls and see what I have seen.

And soon you’ll have a satellite to tell you where I’ve been

 

And anyone who doesn’t do exactly as you say

you turn the bloody screws on them and make the buggers pay.

 

And hard-fought rights and liberties are trampled underfoot

as you wield your mighty sledgehammer to crack some harmless nut.

 

You don’t have any remedies but claim you’ve found a way -

You want to take my fingerprints, extract my DNA.

 

And what reward for those who show political adherence?

- our institutions broken down by party interference

 

as decades of accomplishment, efficiency and pride

have slowly been eroded by a bureaucratic tide.

 

We slip another rung or two despite the frantic spin

of the dead eyed politician with the unconvincing grin

 

So fine me, tax or sue me. And otherwise soundly screw me.

I’ll take my punishment ‘cos what did I do?

I went to the ballot box and voted for you.

[coyleys]

Nice one Nigel.

My kind of poem, it just seemed to roll off the tongue, I think you got the message across just right.

[Ron Blanco]

Hi Sir_Nigel,

 

All of your poems are clever, but this is my favourite so far, because it also has a strong message. I really feel in this one you have something to say.

 

I found the flow was disrupted at this point:

 

"And what reward for those who show political adherence?

- The empty shells of services wrecked by party interference"

 

and also the last three lines were a bit more of a tongueful than the rest of the poem,

 

but overall I thought it was great.

 

Thanks.