REQUIUM MARCH 1985

Tenderly she cried, why oh why did they desert them
She felt herself mocked and betrayed in the moment of defeat,
She had seen the lines of pickets, watched the clashes on the shoreline,
Between the proud and noble and the might of government
Had seen them pull the posters down in the picket hut at the end of a year
Had seen their attempt to be smart yet wearing spent clothes
Acquired at some Boy Scouts' Sale to raise funds for Ethiopia.

What had they been fighting for so passionately all those months?
Simple really, just to live, to survive, just to have a job
History has just been written, this is a watershed, the man from Oxford said.
Who has drowned he was asked.
All of us metaphorically speaking in a sea of class struggle which is only just beginning............