HOW THE HELL DID WE SURVIVE THE SIMPLER LIFE…………BUT, AGAINST THE ODDS, HERE WE ARE

HOW THE HELL DID WE SURVIVE THE SIMPLER LIFE……

In a time before iPads, mobile phones, drones,

hi-vis jackets, white vans and rubbish skips,

we weren’t as obsessed to keep up with Jones,

decades before techno-gadget worship,

and well before health and safety police,

and political correctness went mad,

before thin-skin saps went on the increase

and celebs cashed in by playing sad.

Life was simpler and Sunday a day of rest,

bored, we complained there was nothing to do,

no shops, no swings, no News of the World lest

the Parish Priest’s home visit was overdue.

        A time of just two channels on TV,

       and a complicated future we could not foresee.

……BUT, AGAINST THE ODDS, HERE WE ARE

You know, we spend so much of our lives

not saying the things we want to say, the things we should say.

we speak in code, in little messages, in Ulster bluster,

we are not plain, we are not simple.

We talk of flags, we talk of marches,

we like dug-in heels, mule-stubbornness

and wait-a-wee-minute harangues,

we overvalue history and tradition,

we have some pain, we are a pain,

we have an ulcer, an Ulster ulcer,

not that a pun solves anything.

Here we are, only concerned with now,

not too concerned with how we got here.

Can we have our time and money back?

Sorry, no refunds.