We’re trussed up like a kipper
by this trickle-down wheeze of theirs.
They don’t believe in it themselves,
they know it doesn’t work.
If it worked, of course, there’d be no point
in giving handouts to the rich.
No — we should all be aspirational —
opt to enrich ourselves,
and gain from their trickle-up.
 
While labouring at this Herculean task
Of becoming rich and powerful
We’ll witness the way those already there
Piss on us, the poor and powerless.   

Simon Haines is a language teacher, textbook writer and folk musician. He lives in Suffolk. 21st-century Poetry is edited by Andy Croft, email [email protected].