The Cravings Of A Welshman

Oh rampant pains
of a drunken Welshman
as he prowled the streets
for a simple Englishman.
To pick his bones
and lob the stones,
into pools of choir
as Myfanwy groans.

The ale and laver
does hwyl his soul,
from Felinfoel
to fields of coal.
On Burry Port
and Pembrey shores,
the Welshman
knows his cockle chores.
Gwenllian walks in Kidwelly mun,
without her head,
beyond the sun.

Cymru! Wales!
Where bards run riot
The cawl is deep
the lovespoons quiet.
Long he sleeps
on Merlin's hill,
the wizard's Welsh
stirred Bennett's Phil.

Dragon red
lift claw in pride,
three feathers comb
the pride inside.
No fear breaks
the soul of man,
storms lay shattered
by cwtches hand.

Wales! Cymru!
Ancient Celts,
mother's tongue
on dafodil belts.
Sing of old
as sing we must,
the Cymru tribes
of Swansea dust...

©Steven Francis poems 2013

Facebook: Murder, Death, Kill

Facebook has backed down after the controversy surrounding a video showing masked man beheading woman in Mexico and canned the video. But that it was there in the beginning, while breast feeding images were banned, speaks volumes about the site, and if we are honest, society in general. And yes, I use it but it doesn't mean I approve of everything it gets up to. These are real people in these snuff movies, not actors. Its one thing watching a Hollywood slasher movie, quite another clicking on a link that shows real murder. Worrying that some think its perfectly okay to watch.
Facebook themselves seem to be fine with it though: "the public should be free to view beheading videos then condemn the content" Dear me, what is that cotton-mouthed pish supposed to mean?
"Hey chums, look at this video of some geezer being beheaded! Terrible isn't it? It should be banned...wait, I've got another one showing people being tortured, disgusting eh? I don't know why they show these things ... hang on, wait until you see this video
of a woman being set on fire, its well wicked!"
Where are we heading? Don't we realise that by clicking these awful links, we are in fact encouraging more sickos to make them? In the same way that watching child pornography makes the viewer as guilty of child abuse as those who did the actual abusing. Look I know we used to gather at public executions in the 1700s and make a spectacle out of it but are we not meant to advance? And I suspect if the film showed animal cruelty, the outrage would have come a lot sooner.
It all comes down to this: how would you feel if it was your son, daughter, wife, husband, friend that was murdered and the video posted on the net for all to see? Context! Videos of murders, rape, torture and cruelty that are clicked on on a social media site are not concerned with reporting the news. Atrocities have to be exposed but to show a human being's last moments on earth in a video loop denies the victim of dignity, desensitises us to violence and makes us more callous.
I'm sorry, but videos of beheadings are videos of murder, and there cannot be any justification for showing them. It's nothing to do with freedom of speech or terrorism, it's murder, and posting and watching such imagery makes you complicit in that crime.

A Britain for Britons

Having listened to the politicians conferences (and again shaken my head at their obvious lies) and heard all of the "a better Britain" spiel, I just want to ask: a better Britain for whom exactly? We, Britons need a Britain for Britons. Never mind about Cameron giving tax breaks to his wealthy cronies and opening the gates to all and sundry. We need a Britain for US, the hardworking folk who make this country GREAT. A country where we are not spied on 24/7 with CCTV, a place we can fly our flags with pride, somewhere we are not interfered at every turn by an aggressive bureaucracy and told what we can and cannot do (within the law). What we need is a Britain of old, a Britain of the ages.
Too long we have put the needs of others before our own, too long been told to respect others while having to hide our own beliefs and pride for fear of offending those others. Walking on eggshells in the country of our birth! This my friends is an abominable truth, and change must come before our beloved Great Britain disappears in a vomit fog of alien hues and an entire culture lies dead, defeated. Oh such unbearable crime that would be! Eternal cries within the bones of a fallen kingdom. Such a fate must be averted! We must have a Britain for Britons!
Now the doubters and yoghurt knitters will say this is bigoted and even racist, but I ask; how is it racist to want a country putting its peoples first? This is all I want. I am not suggesting the UK pull up the draw bridge and keeping foreigners out. Really, I am not. I am more than aware of the contributions from others who come here to work and make a better life for themselves. The Filipino nurses, Ghurkha soldiers who fought bravely, the doctors from India, the many others who arrive because they believe in Great Britain. I have no issue with these people in the slightest, rejoice! Let us celebrate this glorious country together.
It is the spongers and thieves who come to take, take, take that boil my blood. People who, even though when discovered and proved to be 'on the game', are hardly ever punished sufficiently, and worse never sent back to whence they came! Mind boggling. Frustrating. Of course we also have the enemy within to deal with, those groups of do-gooders who are never happier when interfering with everything, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they make most peoples lives a bloody misery. We all know who they are, the types who order schools to pull down Christmas trees in case it offended those of different faiths, or fretting that nursery rhymes contain politically incorrect words. (These types can do more harm than any lawbreaker). This madness must end, or we shall pay a dear price. A much much too dear a price.

Making Me Loaf

The Prime Minister has come under fire after struggling on radio (an interview I heard myself on LBC) to name the price of budget supermarket bread. David Cameron replied: "But you can buy a loaf in a supermarket for well north of £1." And revealed that he preferred to bake his own bread (plugging a local Cotswold flour as he did so).
You cn guess what happened next right? Within an hour of finishing the interview, newspaper were carrying the story online and readers were filling the comments area below with cries of how out of touch with 'real people' the British PM really was. The clueless, rich oaf! The uncaring toff!Why he knows nothing about the daily struggle of hardworking people, the normal man on the street. Pah! *Rummages for pitchforks*
Do people seriously expect a man who works full time, you know, running the country, with very little time to himself, to know the exact cost of a loaf? Do folk really think that the Prime Minister of Great Britain does the weekly shop down his local Morrisons? Stunning ignorance if you do. Must think being a world leader is no different than working any other job. Perhaps Barack Obama hits his local Blockbuster with the kids on a Friday to rent the weekend movie? (I realise Netflix is King these days but you get my point).
Only the lazy thinking and pedantic would honestly believe that men with such important jobs think this way. Maybe because they have too much time on their hands? Im not Cameron's biggest fan (far from it) but feel someone needs to show some support. I don't know the price of everything in the supermarkets, I simply throw whatever it is that takes my fancy on that particular week into my trolley and head to the checkout. I love sliced beef, fresh from the local butchers, but couldn't tell you the price for toffee because I have more important things to keep in my head. So come on! Its a tad harsh to be putting our PM against the wall for this trivial nonsense. Oh and lastly, do remember that Cameron is a man. Shopping lists are not much of our thing.