So this is England

So this is England

Walking down the High Street of a Somerset town

Shops are closing down

Or shut up already,

Walking with a dry mouth, parched

But The pub at the end

It hearkens no laugh

The bar is a dark place

The bar stools stand

Empty as a pocket

In an empty land

So this is England

I hear you say

What I had come to love

Has soon been blown away

In a wind of change

As across the motorway

The dust of dry fields

The corn storks decay

But this is Autumn, the voice of reason calls

And anyway what's the season, we

Still have the market stalls

And Artists crying treason

Writing written on the walls

Who's sold off this lovely land

The politicians or the fools?

Who voted for them in the first place?

In this government of crows

This murdering of Parliament

This place where no hope grows

And yet and yet I hear you say

This is Winter, it goes that way

Perennial seasons, people trying

To reclaim

The name of the rose

So this is England

Dig in your own garden and look after your own lot

Put up notices, beg for pardon

Give whatever you've got

Give as good as you get

And forget to pick forget-me-nots

For suckling bees at flowers

Could not count all of their stock

Store it in piles in larders

Fill up the honeypot

And save for a rainy day

For you know that happens a lot

Though we never spend

Even though today is no day to save

Gather it in at your wedding

Give it away at your grave

Yes this is England,

Hoarding your plot

And marking out the lines 

Where you go

Where you do not

And never throw a stone at a crow

Never break the glass houses

Because we've built them out of stone

And we've tied them on necklaces down blouses

Caught in the cleavage gap

Between two breasts boom and bust

Crying I must, I must, I must improve my bust

Yet leverage of whale bones, never

Moved the beached body off the beach

We saw the mermaids waving in the surf

We gave it a pauper's grave and tears of grief

This great flotilla of what was once our dreams

That came up for air once

But heard only screams

Yelling go back, go back

And warning us of the sand banks

But it was too late as The hull

Hit ground and broke the cranks

Yet this is England

We've landed

This place of our dreams

This isle of forever

Forever down flowing streams

Water, water everywhere, flowing down the sink

Water, water everywhere, and only beer we drink