They’re all Dead and Look Who’s Wearing our Coat.
If there was ever a time to find the threads left to us
we’d weave us such a coat as would keep us warm
of a winter. But the sheep in sheep’s clothing has been
fleeced. And it’s so cold out here. Our last defence against
the wild zeroes in on us. The wolf is eating our grandmothers
and our coats are hanging out to dry in our landlords’ gardens.
Enoch and Maggie look down laughing. No one is looking
for a new loom. What stories they told us whilst the axeman
did their dirty work – red dye running rivers to the sea.
[Footnote: Churchill said Attlee was ‘a sheep in sheep’s clothing’. Attlee’s government brought in the Welfare State which is now being dismantled.]
Hannah Linden is a Devon-based poet, emerging from Jo Bell’s 52 group. She has work published in Domestic Cherry 4, Nutshells and Nuggets, Poetry24, The Broadsheet, Wonderzoo, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Appletree’s Speak! anthology and more by the time this goes to print: it’s been a busy year! She tweets @hannahl1n