National Hero by Ruth Aylett

I’m a regular kind of guy with a nose for WMD,
this must be true since you all believed me
give or take a demo of a million or two,
but with Bush as my buddy, I didn’t need you
to bring freedom and democracy to everyone,
especially in Iraq; look at all the good I’ve done.

Yes, I also do God with a beatific smile;
I’m true to my friends, I’ll go that extra mile.
They need those robust methods in Kazakhstan
and the Egyptian army, as only armies can
brought freedom and democracy to everyone
to save their nation’s values, oh the good they’ve done.

With seventy million in the bank I’m only slightly rich,
six thousand pounds a minute gets you a splendid speech.
I’ve helped the housing market with two of my own,
and my good friend Rupert Murdoch would never hack a phone,
he wants freedom and democracy for everyone
especially in Liverpool, so much good he’s done.

I’m back in the UK now because you all need me
to explain the necessity of austerity;
if everyone voted for the left it would still be very wrong
because the top 1% would be missed if they were gone.
Freedom and democracy is what they want for you;
I’ll save our nations values, oh the good I’m going to do.

..

Ruth Aylett lives in Edinburgh where she teaches and researches university-level computing, thinks another world is possible and that the one we have is due some changes. She was joint author with Beth McDonough of the pamphlet Handfast, published in 2016. She has been published by Antiphon, Interpreter’s House, New Writing Scotland, South Bank Poetry, Envoi, Bloodaxe Books, Poetry Scotland, Red Squirrel Press, Doire Press and others. For more on her writing see www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/writing.html.