"Grenfell Fury"

I don't watch the telly
But was stunned when I heard the news
They may not have planted a bomb
But certainly lit the fuse.
Make no mistake at all
This was down to greed
The Establishment not giving a shit
About those most in need.
Let's have money for the opera
Never mind fire escapes for all
Subsidies for the rich
In Holland Park having a ball.
Who needs to pay for sprinklers
When cladding makes your block pretty
Three cheers for gentrification
In our modern day city.
I grew up on council estates
Until Maggie started flogging them off
All over London the rich taking over
Your 'neighbour' a toffee nosed cunt of a toff.
Now council stock's called 'social housing'
They've even changed the name
It's like if the Town Hall's your landlord
You've got to feel the shame.
By the time I left home
I had missed the boat
Not enough places to go round
Which got on my goat.
I don't blame the foreigners
Or 'sponging' unemployed
It was firmly the fault of the Tories
Who made sure Council Housing was destroyed.
My utopian dream was a penthouse
Top floor of a tower block
Complete with graffiti & broken lifts
I don't care if you mock.
That's why Grenfell hit me
It really broke my heart
Not deaths BUT MURDER so needless
Really tearing me apart.
I feel for those who perished
Collapsed on a smoke filled stair
As well as those who got out
Left with nothing but despair.
I'm not going to pray for you
If it worked you wouldn't die
I thought it was only those in hell
Who were supposed to fry.
I'm finding this hard to write
So emotional I want to choke
But that word actually means nothing
Without lungs filled with smoke.
Who will end up accountable?
Who will end up in the dock?
The guilty will retire through ill-heath
Pensions safe...what a  shock!
The establishment protects their own
Many will get off scot-free
I'm not usually a vengeful bloke
But I'd swing them from a tree.
My only hope for the future
Is that they wake up, listen and learn
But deep down inside me I know
This won't be the last time my people burn.

Dulwich Poet 26th June 2017

(My response to the awful & totally preventable Grenfell Fire Disaster that killed so many people recently in west London)