BANISHED

We are the banished

Of honest means and toil

Trimmed stems exiled rootless from home soil

Betrayed, a haunt of our work

Sallow-skinned, steady-handed

Condemned for collaboration

To a measured annihilation

Salmon heads of innocents on the monger’s blocks

Swear a proud promise neath a sycamore tree

Afore the solemn trill of the jailer’s key

They’ll wait for a drowned man on Pompey docks

Sold our souls across oceans to deny our bread

Martyred, for our wives think us all dead

But now I am living, and loveless


We are the banished

Cast away from the bearers, carried our names in caskets

On decaying lips of hardened, kerchiefed kin

Cracking whips on crack-knuckled commoners

Marching arm-in-arm with lofty caps and foreigners

The people a painted Hydra, marooned in the morning

While we martyrs are mourning, empty be our sins

Silk-cuffed swordsmen sever our roots

They are no Heracles! Raise free trade and liberty!

Begone to those who oppose your order, aye,

Tis the word of the sirs to slay the labourer

But the more heads cut down, the higher his voice springs

Obey none save the Hydra and Captain Swing!