FASCISM ARRIVES AS YOUR FRIEND - MICHAEL ROSEN’S POEM 1st published May 2014
Former UK Children’s Laureate MICHAEL ROSEN published this poem as long ago as 2014, that, in the light of recent developments, seems, unfortunately, to be proving all too prescient…”
FASCISM ARRIVES AS YOUR FRIEND As long ago as 2014, former UK Children’s Laureate MICHAEL ROSEN published this poem that, in the light of recent developments, seems, unfortunately, to be proving all too prescient.
Walking ‘The Way Of The Poet’, we never know what unexpected truths we will discover, and to be able to somehow cope with the onslaught of misinformation that seems to be coming worldwide, we are going to need all the sources of truth that we can find..
FASCISM ARRIVES AS YOUR FRIEND
Michael Rosen
Sunday, 18 May 2014
I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you...
It doesn't walk in saying,
"Our programme means militias,
mass imprisonments, transportations,
war and persecution."
I was to share scene that I have immagined in the last few days. Given that everyone old, middle and young are playing at being war secretaries for T, P and Z, I wanted to move the idea that the ‘war has ended’.
So the scene is as follows. There are three children aged 10-12 yrs sitting on the carpeted floor of a luxurious lounge playing the board game Risk. One is the grandson of T, one the grandson of P and the other the granddaughter of Z. They are friends and a bit board with the game. They turn the board over and the tiny pieces are scattered. On the other side it the painting of the planet earth with colour in all her beauty as seen from the moon and the image turns. They start to talk and say to eachother ‘ thankyou to your Grandfather for ending the war, thankyou for being my friend and coming here, I would love to take you to see some of the beautiful places we have … how lucky we are the have such wise families’