Emergency
No accident
An unexpected horror on the
A63, A48, A43
Nothing to do with me
Tory spinning
Death toll rising
Emergency
No accident
Lack of cash
Lies as sanity
Look how much we’re spending
Lies in suits masquerading
It’s a set up
Making ready
For the plunder
Private health
By stealth
NHS ripped asunder
The sick ground under
Emergency
No accident
The people made to doubt
Certain they’re at risk
Tabloids scare
Red tops blare
Can’t trust doctors anymore
Scarce resources evermore
Not their fault of course
They’re not up to it no more
Lay the blame at demand’s door
Emergency
No accident
Tory lore
Undermine
Disrupt
Create stress
Foster disrespect
Prevent success
Horror stories
Lack of cash
Solution found
PRIVATISE
PROFITISE
MONITISE
AMERICANISE
Tory lore
Emergency
No accident
Say no more

At night twenty-four hour A&E shuts
Emergency
No accident
A consequence of years of cuts
Staff shortages to blame
Always the same
Someone else to carry the can
The doors are barred
No place for the halt and lame
The sick debarred
A&E made empty in a land
Where the rich that gets the plenty
And the poor that gets the blame
Emergency
No accident

In A&E
In the dark
Telephones ring
Nothing to see
No patients waiting queuing
Cold white metal chairs
Bolted together in sets of five and ten
Word-processed warning signs
Too many chairs with sticky tape affixed
Please don’t sit on me I’m broken
No use as poultices
To excuse the fact
The chairs are not alone in that
Emergency
No accident

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
The chairs will be just the same
Signs still affixed
Please don’t sit on me I’m broken
Perfect for the halt and lame
Emergency
No accident
No use for crocodile tears of sorrow
It doesn’t have to stay the same
Don’t play their game
Time to cut the Tory cancer out
Take back our NHS
And stop the pain

In the city
A man lives
On a temporary basis
What else?
How could it be otherwise?
In a wheelchair
On the street?
Yes on the street
Sleeping rough
In his NHS wheelchair
In the winter
He has a nice warm hat
Many clothes
He wears them all
Bearded angry
Viewed rough unkempt
What’s that bastard doing with a chair?
He’s sick back in A&E
Emergency
No accident
Thursday night
Men having fun
Dump him from his chair
Rough him up
Have a laugh
Steal his chair
Emergency
No accident
He’s back
Admitted
An easy victim as before
A known welcome guest
Sitting in another NHS chair
Pleased he’s staying put
The warmth of NHS people cheer
Some cops arrive
Looking for someone missing
Are you looking for my chair?
Call 101 they laugh
A nod and a knowing wink
Can’t be right in the head
Serves him right
Asking for it
Rough justice
We’ve real crime to fight
Emergency
No accident
On the street
Living in a wheelchair
Does anybody fucking care?
In A&E that’s what they do
Beyond the walls and broken seats?
Snip snip snipping
At the safety net
Emergency
No accident

I’m a hair’s breadth
Aren’t we all?
From being there
Being the man in the wheelchair
Living rough on the street
In the comfort of an NHS chair

What a place we’ve made
My generation
Us fuckwits
We’ve let the market
Steal our share
Steal hearts and minds
Atrophy sympathy
Acquiesce
Drown in neo liberal Eton mess
Eyes wide closed tight shut
Seeing broken seats
We stand up
Remembering at last
They are few and we are many
Knowing once again
How to face down fear
And together cure our NHS
Care a casualty no more
Give A&E
Our NHS
A clean bill of health

No more
Emergency
No accident

© Phil Cosker 2018