So, you did not vote?

In silence you let hatred use your name,

Its not my job to spell it out so you can see –

All the facts clearly in the public domain,

Yet fascism rises under inertia and hypocrisy,

I don’t want to inject thoughts into your brain

But can’t you see the repetition of history

As the extreme right-wing rises yet again?

How we came to this is not a great mystery –

Evil triumphs as others are silent to pain

So we ‘Brand’ more new masters of misery

As far-right mercenaries more seats gain;

Did you even look at each party policy

Before declaring they are all the same?

Each of us have a vote and responsibility

So we share joys and also share in shame,

Do you care for our imperfect democracy?

Inaction hands the bully a beating cane

Now cancelling out all true diplomacy,

Polluting the land where peace has lain,

Racists, homophobes, men of misogyny

Who think women raped share the blame

Now fly flags of exclusion, fear, austerity,

Blame gay love for flooding and hard rain;

They, in your silence, seized more glory

And many will suffer under their reign,

All feel the effects, we’ll hear your story

For I’m sure that you too will complain

At more job losses and rising poverty,

As climate and communities go insane,

At decimation of our fragile economy,

Your “I did not vote” will chime inane,

Just please don’t say those words to me

As lives, cut ever deeper, become lame,

And the call says all threatened identity

Rests on those who to us lately came

As fear tramples European hope of unity,

After world war we lit this hope aflame,

After fascism and conflict, in a diversity;

Friendship does not make us all the same,

We are not a nation of enforced homogeny,

Challenge the deceptive words and exclaim –

“We need bank and tax reform, not bigotry;

We reject your xenophobic, sick refrain

As misdirection, greed, prejudice, idiocy”

For they only rule because we are tame;

Their fuel was media bias and voter apathy,

You can vote against mainstream ideology,

Greens did surge, though the BBC disclaim,

I am sure there are others beyond mediocrity,

Just don’t throw your vote down the drain,

Let our next voting stories be “a wave came

And we used our voices because we are free,

Because lives are precious and we remain

And others suffered and died for our liberty,”

Yes, EU and UK need reform, it is not all sane,

But it is used as scapegoat for our economy

And its not a main cause of waste as they fain;

Common interest helps against animosity

And keeps peace, yet now goodwill may wain

As politics of hate increases in full militancy

And nasty Nigel treats it like a silly game

And the twitterati discuss what’s for tea.

 

Antonia Zenkevitch

(Yes, that was quite an angry poem.  BTW for the record all insinuations of various prejudices by far-right like UKIP etc … can be backed up, as can the fact that low voter turn out affects votes because the extremists do vote, so if we stay silent …)