The FIRST EVER News in Poetry - Hi Viz Boris - 28/07/2021

I had the absolutely mental idea that I was going to start a project called 'The News in Poetry'. Hopefully this becomes 'a thing'

This one's called: HI VIZ BORIS Oi Boris, please let me just bend your ear for a moment,

Not that your likely to ever hear this,

But I just want to say, that this whole thing about people on community service,

Having to be on show and wear hi-viz, what kind of humiliating, sadistic and bitter act is this?

Is this what we’ll be if we vote conservative?

A nation that forgets that often much bigger things are the factors of crime.

See, people get charged, go to court and in some cases do their time.

But haven’t you thought that the process of rehabilitation,

Shouldn’t be about humiliation.

Because then what do we become? No better than the people we are pointing at,

When we use all sorts of excuses to display the same forms of sadism that we claim to be against.

They say it’s ok to do, if you’re a politician or some media agency.

Why is it in this country, that so often, we chop people down instead of building them up.

And what if some people foolishly decide to think that’s it’s cool anyway,

With videos on Youtube with millions of hits making it sound cool to sell crack cocaine.

And please, please, please explain to me, because I really don’t have a clue,

Why you seem to think Bojo, that it’s a loving, caring thing to do.

So let me tell you simply, how I really think it is,

I’m sure some others will agree, so what I will say is,

For someone to really grow, for them to truly change,

They need help with their confidence, and not to feel strange.

Punishment is one thing, humiliation something else,

What is rehabilitation, when we do this to ourselves?

Copyright Ben Westwood 2021