By Whittinghame Water, from lint-soft bank, Watching rain… could there have been just nothing? Far better not to think a thing so deep, Save focus for that stardust what we are, Leave complex answers to posterity, But… if our planet cannot be preserv’d, Then future minds to solve a Universe Remain unborn, or if born surely starve; Inside deadly marshes are we wander’d, This existential crisis of an age, These flailings of a fake democracy, Burning ballot-rights, profits before freedom; As pinned under daggers of driven greed Votes sustain manipulative systems & corporate institutions hell-bent On step-by-step destroying precious Earth, But there is hope – each fresh generation Of conscientious, ecological Citizens, holding singular aegis Of putting Planet First, above all things, Descry how votes for establish’d parties Are signatures on the World’s death-warrant; But… if enough of us believe in Change Then Change must come, no roof shall stay these dreams, When the next, new, novel evolution Has never been been more vital for Ourkind.
There lies woven carpet on cold-stone floor In Ecuador, once famous with colour, Today only its threadbare fade display’d, To the mantle trampl’d by manky feet, Such objects are Our Planet’s grave warning, Observe Calypso’s temple on Gozo Eroded more in seventy summers Than four thousand previous; sea-rims rise, Threatening Venice & the ancient Fens, Gorgeous Cape Flora by ogres depos’d, The poor Great Barrier Reef falls asleep – Meanwhile industry keeps turning, turning; Deforestation, fossil fuels burning, Greenhouse gasses – methane, nitrous oxide – Churning their toxic cauldrons in the skies Over oceans thermally expanding; Prodigious floods, intensifying droughts, Devastating wildfires, withering storms, Are like a malign tumor’s first sharp slap – High-level international discourse Agrees to only lower emissions But World! These must be halted for to save Ourselves from damage unprecedented, Permanent, irrevocable changes, Let us reject the regret of hindsight, The stakes have never been as high as this, World! If we lose this one we lose it all!
I saw two frogs a-mating on the track, Frozen like ice, & then I heard the revs Of moving car, I stood as still as stone & watch’d them splatter’d upwards by the wheels Goo-flesh upflashing, fry-pans spitting oil, In those sad deaths I found a metaphor For how this planet’s mechanizing surge Rumbles blindly along destructive roads, & by the kerbside hopes of Human youth Upended as if brawlers roll’d a cart Upon itself, & scatter’d dreams like fruit Across the cobbles, bruis’d & value-stripp’d; Whose are the hands which bend the axle’s truth? Whose is the sand that scratch’d the diverse eye? Whose are the boots which crush the fruits to pulp? These answers are brave truths to understand, Tho’ some ken scatter’d portions well enough, To place each piece together from the pile, & make the puzzle whole is how I’ll go & how I’ll sing my song, no tender lay Of love is this, but heed my Druid Call; The mistletoe is paling on the oak, The Ozone layer failing to protect All that our happy ancestors enjoy’d – But if our caring hearts bind in one fold, There’s nothing on this Earth we cannot do, To save this Earth from ruin’s rough demand!
It’s the return of the Damo
That’s my name, yo!
See I’m back & acting the same
Y’all miss’d me
I’ve been wand’rin’ the streets
Hittin’ on beats hunting treats
That’ll funk up mi disco
It’s a party so lets go
All the cats who’ve been bangin’ to techno
Let go, there’s a fresh way to dance
Making old-fashion’d moves in yer groovy new pants
Oo-ah, let’s dance like nineteen seventy-five
Oo-ah, girls don yer make-up & shape up
Oo-ah, let’s dance like nineteen seventy-nine
Oo-ah, its time to shake up & wake up
To the T to the I to the N-K-Y
To the D to the I to the S-C-O
To the T to the I to the N-K-Y
To the, to the, to the – HIT IT DAMO
Cos Im back & I’m whack
& I’m always bouncing back the attack
Cos its all about feeling
Not the daily lives the bankers are stealin’
Psyche up for the twenty-first century
Men & women are the same
It started with a terror plane
That went off with a bang
But now I’ve got my freedom in
I cannot help but reasoning
Disco sang of better days
We’re gonna spin that shit again
Its the return of the hindsight
It’s a gunfight
Whether you be a man, woman or transvestite
We’re one Human Race, sharing one space
On the face of a phantom beauty
But that’s in jeopardy
Socialise, realise for the remedy
Energy, there’s a new way to act
Deconstruct the Transvaal, the cabal counteract
Oo-ah, let’s dance like nineteen seventy-five
Oo-ah, girls don yer make-up & shape up
Oo-ah, let’s dance like nineteen seventy-nine
Oo-ah, its time to shake up & wake up
To the T to the I to the N-K-Y
To the D to the I to the S-C-O
To the T to the I to the N-K-Y
To the, to the, to the – HIT IT DAMO
Psyche up for the twenty-first century
Men & women are the same
It started with a terror plane
That went off with a bang
But now I’ve got my freedom in
I cannot help but reasoning
Disco sang of better days
We’re gonna live those days again
Don’t forget those kick-ass basslines…
I’m the Dee Double Bee, that’s me,
I aint your normal form of MC
I’m a true groovebuster Voodoo Chile
Tryin’ to make the isle of Jamaica smile
& the way she plays in the glade
Sippin’ white wines & lemonade
Electric spritzer fits her poise
Rip it up Al, lets make some noise
We’re Scotland’s top hip-hop outfit
Lyrical bandit doing my bit
Musical genius jamming geetah
Here’s the New Truth wherever you are
Empires’ demises praised! Do not be fool’d, Tho’ colonies bled out all frustration, Tears glaring triumphant at lower’d flags, Descendents find fresh fetters rub the nape, Foreign aid invested as feudal loans, Festering in a lice-nest interest, Itching all the day, scratching barely helps, Red rawly bleeding eye-popping figures Secreted by stealth in secret accounts, Rich nations do not maturate the poor, It is the poor who establish the rich, Enabling children in the Western malls To choosing choicest chain-chomps in t-shirts, Go gaggles of gargoyles, downtown Mumbai, Drooling hunger within well-lit windows, Consumerism’s clear demarcation; Tho’ millions of years minerals make, Handfuls of Millennia consume them, A future most definitely finite, We drill & dig & frack; lacking respect, Restraint, refusing roads of redemption, For less than a quarter of all people Devour & quaff four fifths of Earth’s life force, While children in underdeveloped straits Live sixteen times less nourished by the pride That is our western avarice, meanwhile A baby dies of hunger as I write.
Meaningleft people, menial labours, Denied that unique dignity thro’ work, The gross futility of modern slaves, Colocating with garbage, pollution, Influxing slums exacerbating strains, Unseen by those who permeate the cause, Unheard by those who flick thro’ Now TV, Condemning millions of under-fives To drawing last earth-breaths with woeful eyes, Before they’d known just what it was to live, They’ll never feel that they were supercool! Or take the dogs out walking in the woods, To fall in love & dwell in common trust, To help a child with their child thro’ the days, No whiff of this for those squirming thro’ filth; Midst non-existence of sanitation Water looks dirty, shelters ramshackle, No teachers, no doctors, no Mardi Gras, No vitamins, for parents’ debt too great; Good souls forcing on criminality, In flood the drugs, cycles of addiction Sent spiralling thro’ every cirque of Hell, Until a last megacity sickness, Neither mother nor father can afford To change wages for hospital visits & so they pray to God, ‘save our baby!’ Who dies that night in soft, malnourish’d arms.
In the clutch of international trade, In the cycle of lowering wages, Under investors increasing profits, Heaping misery upon the masses, Who slaver over morsels in the drains, More tribulations claw the Global South, Despite the tiniest carbon footprints, The worst of alter’d climate they’ll endure, Some Twenty-First century apartheid, Entirely wrong, greed-wrought, so let us act, Enforcing rapid shifts from fossil fuels, To energies renewable, & free, Friends, let us, step-by-step, muster this goal, When all the halycons of Shangri-La Infuse Nirvana with euphoria, Bulldozing conspiracized lethargies, Subsidizing urgent abdications Of those who’d rather let us burn petrol Than let prosper sun-power’d fumeless cars; First legislate to keep the coal below, Leave oil & gas bub-bubbling undisturb’d, Apart from what’s essential to exist; Deglobalising manufacturing Gives work to all & thus reduces freight, Slashing emissions til them next to naught, Then Earth resets, preserving velvet verve & beauty of this unique sphere of ours.
What shall it be, this miracle of ours, When shaking off the shackles of evil, Transparency in government a must! Good food & shelter guaranteed for all Work-able to universal standards Spanning various sectors, interests; Important planetary decisions By congress’d ecowarriors moulded Not naughty wee nations obsess’d with gold Or TNCs thinking they transcend Law, Or even CEOS, for wealth extreme Shall simply slam possessors in prison, When Our Vision mulitiplies by fibres We will have long eliminated greed, We will have copied successful models From each Earth culture, each society, & wove them all together with thick thread Spun by Our Common Goal – we must invest In think tanks, letting clever plebiscites Invigorate ideas, unity Stands on the final nation that we build – Godsent terrestrial federation Composed in stable peace to securely Marshall all Our fabulous resources, The bounties of Nature tamed by Science, The benefit of all, without burden, The summit of our dauphin phantasie.
While World sleeps, lanterns of the super-rich Burn vainly, spiteful pleasure-loving lights, Gross built by endless labours of the poor, As each greed-sodden individual Slaves creates, generates mass miseries, By 2035 just one percent Of swarming populations shall possess Two thirds of all Earth’s astonishing wealth, Stern minotaurs manipulating minds Thro’ media-moulding, judges bribing, Political leaders hegemonizing, To keep the masses angry at themselves, Divide & conquer strategists employ Thro’ every second’s widening wealth gap; Shame Indonesian Oligarchies! Shame Petroleum Gods of Desert Wells! Shame on America’s three richest men Fondling more finance than HALF their country! Shame the price of faded Masters’ paintings – Such cash could fashion twenty hospitals! Instead, its swept out of circulation Via trinkets merely canvas & paint Slapp’d down in pretty patterns; or is used With stealth to catena society Via empty wages, fake elections – Exhausting, dispiriting money loops Serving Swiss Contessas red velvet cakes!
