Poet's Corner: The Boat People Don't Care

(In response to requests from Steve Alvarez and a couple of others who still remember The Levellers …)

The Boat People Don’t Care

Times are hard, any fool can see it’s true,

I’ve been waiting for my assets to accrue.

But I’m finding it’s a struggle just to maintain,

My standard of living is under such a strain.

I had to make another payment on my Maserati,

Not to mention my townhouse-condominium,

And you don’t have to tell me ‘bout the price of gasoline –

How come those Arabs have to be so mean?

And the worst thing about it is

The Boat People don’t care

They don’t care about me,

The Boat People don’t care,

They don’t care about me …

I can’t bear such a blatant incongruence;

It’s getting hard just holding on to my affluence.

So I try a little harder each and every day,

But every time I make a dollar seems like

Somebody’s taking it away.

Well, you should’ve seen the bill for my microwave oven