Twenty First Century plc

I

Metallic is perfect for 21st Century style
And glittering shop windows beguile for a while
Kookai has just launched a millennium collection
Let's shell out a small wad for party perfection
And yell out our hopes clad in sequin confections.
Be-decked with glass baubles from Lalique -
"So now darling" -
We'll shine in apocalyptic chic.
("Where did you say you got that ring?")

I'd invest a few quid for an evening of hope
At the trans-global party I won?t sit and mope.
I'll vogue under a strobe with the rest of the globe
Drink to enlightenment
Hell bent ...

As if somehow in a corner of the party
Lies a small, a very tiny, glittering silver key
Which can unlock the secrets of time ...
(A silver stilleto kicked it under the sofa
With pink sodden streamers and fag butts. Oops.)
"Oh sweetie you look absolutely divine!"
The bells start to chime

We lurch and we hug,
I look to the clock with a hogmany shrug

As the glitterball keeps on turning ....

And we end up standing on a station platform
Waiting for the minutes to click into a new hour
Watching second after second devour
That small slice of consciousness left.

For in a few decades we'll be dead.


II

No one owns time
Not New Millennium Plc,
Nor Music 21st Century

Our time is ours.
It is not owned by capitalist pigs.
Let us cherish our hours.

For in a few decades we'll be dead.


Hannah Borno