In Veralynn, freshly renamed
Capital City of Churchillia
Where the tannoys rasp all day and night
Alternating episodes of ITMA with
The World King’s greatest jokes,
The felon’s corpse
Twists from the gibbet in the brittle breeze.
His crime:
Not mentioning The War.
Mothers turn their children’s faces
From the scene,
Tug tetchily along the length
Of their fraying gasmask cases’ straps
And hurry on to queue for hours
For meagre rations
Of the most basic of Life’s Simplest Essentials.