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
