Democracy on the streets

Britain votes for first ever police commissioners

The Straits Times, 15 November 2012

An invitation to a polling booth

colour coded, red blue yellow green,

a little grey but mostly party boys

looking for yet another stage

to posture on. Why trust them,

these politicos, more than we did

the bureaucrats who were there before?

Will their power to back or sack

a police supremo protect the weak,

the feeble, the poor — or even the rich?

We’d all be safer on the grace

of nosy neighbours and journalists.

Surprised to see a queue at all

let alone a snaking one, I take my place.

The line slithers round the corner

and in the next street I find the queue

is not for the election after all,

but to loot a haemorrhaging

liquor store. I wade in, grab my due,

exercise my voting right at the counter.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet