if every child chased dreams of societal reorganization
in place of sweet wrappers and escape,
then we would see mr. cadbury’s enlightened industrialism
for what it really fucking is:
social morphine ?we’d have ourselves a pre-school army.
walt disney is pushing social and sexual hierarchy,
my bed-time stories like a gmtv gomulka.
slumbering in my jimmy-jammies,
my wondrous imagination long since closed and put away.
willy wonka was a capitalist confidence trickster,
a poster boy for neo-liberalism, a full-stop on revolt.
and the bfg a propagandist for an unaccountable regime,
orwell’s vision with a wrinkled face.
hold out the arm and quiet the voice.
my first macdonald’s visit a vaccination,
like the time my parents took me to the school / clinic,
and handed me over to the teacher / nurse / whatever.
i too got sucked in by the myth machine.
unattainable, but i just wish we weren’t so fucking mindless.
drowned in a recurring nightmare of causal influence.
a little more suspicion in our fairy tales please.
mum and dad, i’m sorry, i won’t do what enid blyton told me.
our jealousy at their opportunity:
the once weak will one day rule this world.
the monsters underneath the bed are merely jaded failings.
