“You must write something
About our government”
A local reckons as we
Chat about the beautiful game
And it’s alleged galacticos

Our Government said he
And not The Government
As folks tend to do as if
It is nebulously out
There in the clouds

(Unreachable and untouchable
Ensconced and blue-lighted
Security-gated in ivory towers
Sheltered from the storms)

(Others do the Us and Them
Feeling alienated and detached
Not part of the historic compromise
Not part of the nation’s Rainbow
Still stuck with tribalist thoughts)

What does one write
Without boring or depressing you
(As it did for a local letter-writer
Of some religious bent
And a strange predilection
For pale-colonial rule)

Must one compose odes
To artichokes or songs
For nightingales
And the like
Or the dislike

What does one write
As there is so much
Material and so much
Materialism too

A long-suffering supporter-local of the Arsenal FC and I have words, one Sunday late morn.

The other “local”, the said letter-writer, is one who – a SMSer in a local community newspaper noted with some irony – has several bright lights fortifying his own ivory tower!