"Be Prepared"

A young man
Slain in his prime
Such a notorious crime
Your murderers free
Just one or two under lock & key
As the result of the police
Presuming YOU were guilty
Until proved innocent.
Justice
Metropolitan Police style.
Two decades on
Their shame leaks out
Every bit of decency
The old bill flout
Putting your family
Under investigation
To the shock
Of the entire nation.
But I'm not thinking
'This has to stop'
As my train of thought is frozen
On your photographic backdrop.
Surely there was a better one
In your family photo book
Than at the one we
Always have to look.
It's not your fault
Won't speak ill of the dead
But dear oh dear
That wallpaper behind your head!
Truth is we don't know how or when we die
Or how much the media will pry.
Time to do a Baden-Powell
And have a good snap ready to print
It doesn't have to cost a mint
For a respectable picture
To do you proud
No more dodgy pics allowed!
I might approach Dragon's Den
With a bid
For those brown bread photos
With the embarrassing bits hid.
'Be Prepared' as you
Don't know when you'll die
It's a cracking idea,
If 'pie in the sky'!

Dulwich Poet 25th June 2013

(The ongoing disgraceful treatment of the Stephen Lawrence family, for many years, since his murder in Eltham twenty years ago, was in the news again. A 'whistleblower' said in a book that the police had attempted to 'dig up dirt' on his family and friends, to discredit them. When I read the story I once more looked at the photo of Stephen, that they always use. And each time I do I think to myself: "What on earth were they thinking with that wallpaer? Surely they have a better photo than that?" )