The Exodus
I think it began with the airline strike,
No planes, not in, nor out,
The pilots didn't know who to blame,
‘Not us, ' they said, ‘old Scout! '
‘It must be a Union thing, ' they said,
But then the trains had stopped,
And the truckies set their trucks in a ring
That the diesel tax be dropped.
A city of half a million
Where everyone stayed at home,
Petrol ran out at the bowsers, so
There was nowhere left to roam,
‘It could only happen in Westernport,
This City of the Damned, '
The people moaned, and the airwaves groaned,
And the Internet was jammed.
People were phoning the government
But they weren't returning calls,
The Mayor had gone on a golfing trip,
They said, to Cedar Falls,
The ‘News' had run out of newsprint
By the end of the second week,
So the paper stands were empty, and
The Internet was weak.
The ISP's said sorry, but
Our Networks are closing down,
There's been some trouble with hackers
From some place in another town,
The radio went on the blink
And the TV screens were snow,
The people gathered on pavements
Wandering round, no place to go!
The blackout lasted another week,
Then the city's power failed,
The engineers had scratched their heads,
‘We have to get this nailed! '
But then the water had stopped its flow
Through half a million pipes,
And the fear in the city began to grow
As thieves took over the night.
Before the strike, the news had been
That the Yanks were back in space,
Right back up there with the Russkies
With the Chinese, saving face,
They'd each gone on an exploring binge,
[...] Read more
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
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