GREENPEACE SAVES WHITEHAVEN!

Screams the headline of The Times,

A bombardment of chemical waste

And disaster and despair and destruction

From the chemical factory looming over the town.

Flashing warning lights illuminate:

“Rocks as sterile as the moon!”

“Acid rain strips paint off cars!”

Finally, there is hope for the town.

These cars are now being sold to pay for mortgages

on grey clone houses

on grey clone housing estates,

and Asda savers food that tastes

like shame with a numbing aftertaste of fear:

Is this the last proper meal we’ll eat this week?

On the toy that will be a wrenching

disappointment on Christmas Day;

“Why doesn’t Santa love me Daddy?”

Now the bird song is carried over green fields

Where children scream and shout twisting and

winding on stolen broken bikes,

While their parents queue silently at Job Centre Plus

And slump home to drown their wordless screams

in cheap booze they can’t afford.