Apologise - An open poem to our government

Apologise 11/02/2021

Apologise for tiring out a much abandoned nation

Where nobody will listen now you’ve run through all our patience.

Admit that all this tribulation could have been avoided

We didn’t need to suffer, lose our lives and be exploited.

Apologise for letting sport be deemed ‘essential work’

While social workers struggle to aid people lost and hurt.

If other people suffer why should they be set apart?

Why separate by profit when we’re all the same at heart?

Apologise to tortured souls who are not safe at home

For whom this could mean life or death, and yet they’re so alone

Because you did not do your best, you let them suffer more

As long as all the rich stay rich, and all the poor stay poor.

Apologise to those who hurt, who starve, who fall, who cry

Apologise to everyone who didn’t need to die.

Apologise to families who lost the chance to mourn

Who could not be with partners when their child was being born

Who could not comfort others who weren’t coping well with grief

But as long as it’s not you, I guess it’s just beyond belief.

I’m glad that you recovered, for you won the game with death

Forgetting as you did so those you did breathe their last breath.

From up on high in power you’ve lost sight of actual pain

Making sure to save your bacon while you pass around the blame.

Apologise to people who were trying to help out

When you told them ‘support local’ after you’d left them without.

It is your responsibility to keep us on our feet

Not make things worse by telling us to all go out to eat.

A government is needed to support and care for us

What use is there for governments that throw away our trust?

What use is there for leaders who hold nothing in their eyes

Who see only a number when a human being dies?

Who offer no protection to the people in their care

Who turn their backs and wallets just as soon as they get scared.

Apologise for taking food from tables of the poor

When it is clear to everyone you could be doing more.

Where did the money go for our support in times as these

When 50,000 pounds are being claimed by our MPs?

How many hungry children could your food expenses feed?

Where is support as promised in our darkest hour of need?

Apologise to teachers who were given nothing more

Than anger and annoyance even louder than before

Having parents lashing out because they’re drowning all the while

Silent voices in the background of your ‘sorry’ tinted smile.

Apologise for letting people get away with murder

Through ignorance and selfish acts that spread the horror further.

Say sorry to the workers who will deal with such abuse

For saying that a mask under the nose is of no use.

When you made a requirement for people to wear masks

But offered no support for workers carrying out this task.

(To companies using covid for their profits and their gain

Ads that take advantage of our fear and loss and pain

Apologise for telling us you care about our health

When workers put in danger line your pockets with our wealth

To idiots out shopping for a single scratch and win

Or other such essentials such as cigarettes and gin

To self-important strangers who refuse to really see

Apologise for what you’ve done to stop us breaking free.)

Apologise for lonely nights without a hand to hold

For life becoming empty for the sick, the lost, the old.

Your latest shaming adverts say to ‘look them in the eyes’

I’d like to see you do that without falling back on lies.

To ‘learn lessons’ isn’t valid when it’s been a year too long

When you started at the baseline of assuming science wrong.

‘Deeply sorry’ isn’t valid without feeling in your eyes

Or admittance to your fault when yet another person dies.

It’s not rugby you’ve been playing, where you could make a mistake

You have sacrificed your people; lives are not just there to take.

All I hear is empty ‘sorry’s that have not a ring of truth.

It’s our fault of course, you’re trying, blame the poor and blame the youth.

Be shamed for your destruction of the world of art and song

Telling people ‘just re-train’ when they’ve been training for so long

For not seeing that the people who have entertained for you

Were working just as hard and are important people too.

How dare you think you’re better over anyone who loses

Because you think that poverty is something someone chooses

And hoard the funds to aid them just to give to all your friends

Who separate themselves from us by how much one can spend.

The arbitrary nature of deciding who should win

In this game of life you’re playing that we’re all just trapped within

Where someone who saves lives will get a clap instead of pay

When of course you would be outraged if we treated you this way.

Till you admit to apathy instead of human feelings

To blocking out reality, for underhanded dealings

To offering no guidance for the people who you blame

For giving no enforcement, only lies and outright shame

It’s not good enough; apologise for all you haven’t done

Apologise to self-respect, of which you have now none.