news that matters, campaigns that count

for Birmingham, the Black Country and beyond

Poet's Corner

ANOTHER REPORT

22-09-2008

Amid news that the police are being forced off the beat to keep up with their paperwork, The Stirrer's poet laureate Brendan Hawthorne files, er, another report...

There’s another report
pending
One of constraint
and of little restraint
but nonetheless
another report
Another report
to pile on the
bureaucratic stack
suspending action
pending
another review
of the theories
of paper-bound
policing
Squad cars
going nowhere
waiting
awaiting blues and two’s
waiting for another report
to be filed
in triplicate
on the word
of this law and order
conflict
All the hard work
of the street force in
reducing crime
reducing fear of crime
being lost
in a morass
of surplus reports
pending
directing
distracting
the police away
from their real duties
Breaking their spirit
their desire to
make our streets
our towns and cities
safer
happier
and more settled
for the sake of
another report
All the community
bridging
and liaison projects
poised and
now projected
at the waste bin
for the sake of
manpower
womenpower
And as
another report
is being written
is left waiting
whilst
filing out another report
on another incident
whilst
reading about another mugging
whilst reports
pile up
another shoplifter
awaits arrest
pending a report
Another youth
falls foul
of boredom
and tedium
whilst waiting
to have a report
written now
pending and
awaiting a sentence
A conclusion
is needed now
A report acknowledged
before desks
collapse
under the duress
of further reports
Let’s get the police
out in force
doing their job
not admin
not clerical
or soon we will all
have to fill in
a report
before
we’re allowed
to breathe again
in a land of common sense
and duty

DISCUSS THIS ON THE STIRRER FORUM