THE RED RUNNER AXES FREE SPEECH



The red runner says she’s cracking down
She’s cracking down on the truth,
When we want to speak our minds
She says, “What is the use?”

The red runner wants to impress
People who do not matter,
But people living here in Oz
Say she’s madder than any hatter!

For you cannot limit democracy
It has to be all or none,
And after the next election is past
We all hope that the runner is gone.

Yet for more than 2 years we’ll suffer
Her and Labor’s hair-brained schemes,
Telling us the truth doesn’t matter
“For justice is not all it seems.”

The runner wants the United Nations
To say we have passed their test,
But to reach their kind of pass mark
Freedom will have to be suppressed.

For the runner has sold Australia
For the powers-that-be-out-of control,
It seems reducing freedom of speech
Is the runner’s most awful goal.

The runner has surely lost the plot
If she wants to cosset the evil UN,
They’ll never be pleased with Australia
Until all basic freedoms are gone.

The runner has fallen at the first post
So why can’t the nag be shot?
There are very few freedoms left
So let’s hang on to what we’ve got.

The runner wants to control our speech
And we have to tell the bitch, “No way!”
We must fight, fight, fight for freedom
Till she’ll be gone next election day!

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

A follow-up to my poem, the Red Runner, about Australia's bottle-red prime minister. Strangely, for all her incompetency, I only ever wrote a couple of poems about Australia's inane first female prime minister.

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Written on February 16, 2008

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 10, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:15 min read
1

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XAXA XBXC ADAD XEXE FGHG IBFC XIXI HJXJ XXF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,333
Words 250
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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