NaPoWriMo 2013, Day #06 – Valediction

The prompt for Day 06 of NaPoWriMo was:

“This might seem like a bit of a downer, but I challenge you to write a valediction. This is a poem of farewell. Perhaps the most famous one is John Donne’s A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, which turns the act of saying good-bye into a very tender love poem. But your poem could say “good-bye” (and maybe good riddance!) to anything or anyone. A good-bye to winter might be in order, for example. Or good-bye to the week-old easter eggs in your refrigerator. Light or serious, long or short, it’s up to you!”

Farewell, Welfare

We know you’re feeling hungry.
We know you’re sleeping rough.
But the country’s in recession,
and we haven’t got enough.

We know you’ve lost your house, Sir.
We know you need to sleep.
But we need to pay for Trident
and it isn’t coming cheap.

We know you’ve got no money.
We know you need to eat.
But I’m sure there is a food bank
just up off Market Street.

We know that you’ve got nothing.
You had none; now have less.
But funerals are costly things,
even for a Baroness.