HIGH GATE CONFERENCE

The year is 2010
A conference
Is held

In High Gate Cemetery
The first
Of its kind
The first in history

Participants
Are ancient
Colourful and gentle
But also flamboyant

Their ethnic origins
Varied as their ideas

Organised by a
Famous person
Karl Marx

Participants
Include, Mao, Lenin
Nixon, Churchill
Stalin, Pol Pot
and Trotsky

Agenda,review of ideas
and history

Chair, said, you all
Represent ideas
Radical and reactionary

Let's discover
How you are
Judged by history

Adhering to the principle
of criticism
And self-criticism

Each one of you
Should give his opinion

Objection!!
From the floor

This Conference
Is a non-starter

For I don't see
Any gay, lesbian
Or women

My conscience
Won't allow me
To attend a conference
Made up of only
Heterosexual men

2010 should
Be
A century of
Diversity
Not of
Mediocrity

A Conference
With laudable aims
Took plenty
Of time and plans

Far too long time
Spent to locate
Some of the guests
For some hibernated
In odd places

Pity
The conference
Ended
Before it began

Lenin
The feisty objector
Promised
To organise another

Equality Issues
Will not be mantra
But
Prominent agenda

Conference
Of universal values
When those excluded
Will make their presence