Money for War

I am, like everyone, currently deep into essay hell. However I just came across a really relevant poem in a copy of Celyn magazine while scouring it for inspiration.

It summarises frustrations about spending priorities pretty well. The fact that in the London governments latest budget defence spending is protected whilst education is not. Even the university have shares in arms companies, which Campaign Against the Arms Trade highlight year after year.

Anyway, im not a massive poetry fan but thought this was pretty fitting so here it goes.

Money for War by Herbert Williams - from Red Poets issue 15.

The patients are lined up on hospital trolleys,
They're waiting for ten hours or more.
But put down Iraq for another six billion,
They always find money for war.

The schools are a shambles, there aren't enough textbooks,
The damp's coming up through the floor.
But stack up the cluster bombs, target the missiles,
There's no end of money for war.

We can't pay the nurses half what they're asking.
They're stroppy? Then show them the door!
Just make sure there's a smile on the face of George Dubya
By giving him money for war.

The dentists go private. Our molars go rotten.
The trains are a joke. It's a bore.
But so long as the profiteers make a good killing
You'll find that there's money for war.

We know what the future holds. Pain and frustration.
No this and no that. It's the law.
And most certain of all is the truth beyond telling-
There'll always be money for war.