Seventeen Years

Some years ago my father made me a deal If I stopped dossing around, worked hard at school My future would contain a great deal I would have vacations, a home, a car and shoes! A good standard of living and security I couldn’t lose.... That was it, Sold! – I loved shoes! Well I was a teenager and shallow But took up the books and waited for the spoils to follow And post school this worked for a good seventeen years With hard work I had much of what was promised With minimal tears Then the rules changed But we were not told This scheme we had signed up for Was to be put on hold There was no backup plan, our deal had been a one size fits all That had guaranteed with hard work we all could all go to the ball! But we stumbled on Still believing in the ways of the past Without any clue It wasn’t ever guaranteed to last That our future would not resemble our parents’ past And would collapse with a worldwide crash Yes we knew times were tough And we had seen hard times before But the difference is The good times weren’t coming back any more There was nothing left in the store No more.... I must excuse my father This was the deal he had been fed With which he had had success And it all sounds so plausible Once it’s in your head Kind of like the definition of ‘trickledown effect’ But Cinderella in our modern world However hard she tries shall not go to the ball She works a zero hour’s contract Supplying her own uniform and broom Starting at 5:00 a.m. and working until who knows when And the next day (maybe - no guarantees) she gets up and does it all again No vacations, no castle Not even those shoes! As it seems my ‘Right Honourable Friends’ This deal we were sold Was designed so we could all invest Yet the majority lose So at the next election who are you going to choose? Someone who peddles the same old lie? With a post-Blair pre-apocalyptic menacing (don’t you trust me?) smile Or someone who accepts that those guarantees, for us Were only ever just pie in the sky Nothing was guaranteed, that we wasted our time.... Personally I might just let it all pass by With a heavy heart and a big sigh As not one of them seems to be able to look you in the eye To tell our generation that we were sold a lie And had this not fallen down on us We would have been expected to pass this belief system on Down to the next generation and perpetuate the wrong And this crazy merry-go-round would have continued on Anna Archichek