Union Songs

Today, tomorrow and yesterday

A poem by John Tomlinson©John Tomlinson 2007

Between the promise of tomorrow
and the lies of yesterday
somewhere in between I'll fit today.

Know what you're standing in

A poem by John Tomlinson©John Tomlinson 2007

Howard had a revelation which will save our mighty nation.
Without a doubt he's made a big mistake, he says
"Workplace Choices now are so unfair that they will have to go".
It's a pity he didn't ask the workers - they could have told him so.
He's making television ads with $5 Mil of our hard earned dosh
He says he wants us to know what it is we're standing in.

He says "Labor can't be trusted and that all unions should be busted".
He's running round the country giving "Australia Writhing" speeches.
He's standing on the headlands but scrupulously avoiding beaches
he doesn't want a jolt or to make the same mistake as Harold Holt.
At the next election he says the "Liberals might be annihilated".
That is what we've been wishing. It's for that that we have waited.

Howard handed our future fund to a trusted Enron banker.
He said he had to do it because Costello is a wanker.
He says he trust the Yanks to mind the fund for all of us,
that we should be relaxed and comfortable and not make a fuss.
There is something rather silly about his way of gilding the lily,
and nothing at all funny about what he's doing with our money;
but we know where we're standing and we know which stand we're taking.

The words they are a changing

A poem by John Tomlinson©John Tomlinson 2007

I'm old enough to remember when a rendition was the singing of a song
and old enough to remember when we knew right from wrong
when clusters referred to gems not bombs
when the Bushes were places that birds hid in
when collateral damage meant you’d lost assets
when civilian casualties caused concern
when daisy cutters were used to mow meadows
when climate change meant it might rain
when we paid countries for their oil rather than invading
and I'm young enough to remember that those were better days.

Notes

Many thanks to John Tomlinson for permission to add these poems to the Union Songs collection.

Find more of John's work on this site

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