How we got from basic human kindness. Corbynism.

A generosity of spirit with mild redistributive qualities
And the idea of taking collective responsibility
For climate and the environment. Public utilities.

Stopping sewage. People paying taxes.

To Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer.

Wes Streeting (who must have betrayed
His Class in infants’ school) remains a mystery.

Obviously, there are clues.

I’ve just watched a film of an octopus
That was washed up by the weather
On a beach in Southern Wales or Devon
And the creature looks befuddled.

The boy and girl who found (and filmed) it
Had a choice. They could have tortured it
With sticks, or returned it gently to the ocean.

Streeting, who is Shadow Health, would have gone
Directly for the eyes. Reeves would have charged
Spectators. Starmer would have told us

How his father was a tool maker, pointed
Sticks a speciality. Laser-focused. I wonder

If Angela Rayner knows that she’s the octopus?

Steven Taylor was born and raised in Hyde, now lives in Kilburn, London. He was winner of Culture Matters Bread and Roses Competition, 2021 and 2022.