Working-Class Patriot [in memory of Evagoras Pallikarides 1938-1957 Cypriot Poet and Patriot]

Fluttering and flapping,

littering English

highways and byways,

pathetic and windblown,

ragged remains

of Union Jacks,

George crosses,

gibetted like criminals,

unceremoniously strung up

by “Working-Class Patriots”

who’re defending “British Values”,

defending our women and girls,

from Johnny Forriner,

from invaders,

from men of fighting age,

from people in boats,

who’re housed

in five-star hotels,

and given cars,

oh yes, it’s true,

‘cos Tommy Ten Names

says it’s true!

Evagoras Palikardes,

Cypriot patriot, and poet

ever since the day

he could hold a pen,

was arrested by British

occupying forces

who were, as always,

upholding “British Values”:

he, for the crime

of defending his homeland

by posessing a gun,

which could not be fired:

at 19 years of age,

he was strung up,

hanged in a prison cell,

hanged by the neck,

until he was dead.

Our long-lived,

most gracious and noble

Queen Elizabeth the Second,

couldn’t be arsed

to answer a written

last-minute request

for a stay of execution.

Long live British Values!

Le Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh,

Dé Céadoin, an naoú lá is fiche de mhí Aibreáin,

An bhliain dhá mhíle is fiche a sé.