John Fox
50p A Ticket
On the day of fixed bayonets
my MP posted me raffle tickets
to Save Our Hospital.
On the day of Trident renewal
my MP sent me raffle tickets
to Save our Wards.
Our firepower will Save Our World.
We are fighting for hospital equipment.
My MP says:
“Barrow women die sooner than the average.
People know instinctively what’s right.”
The canteen is well equipped with iodine.
The draw takes place on Friday 13th
A day of community fighting for Furness.
Time to secure an important victory.
The star prize is a tour of Westminster
and a cup of tea.
Also a football shirt of Barrow AFC
unwashed if you are lucky.
Even a pop up cake maker.
Or the final reward:
A day in Hoad Lighthouse with our MP and his wiles.
To join in the launch of prize–winning missiles.
My MP says he is depressed.
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
John Fox. Born in Hull in 1938. Printmaker and pathological optimist. Founded and directed Welfare State International (1968-2006) www.welfare-state.org the celebratory arts company which invented or re-invented influential prototypes of contemporary vernacular art such as lantern parades, site specific carnivals and fireshows.
Raised the Titanic in Limehouse 1983 and moved the Trident Sheds in Barrow in Furness 1990. Author/contributor Engineers of the Imagination 1983 plus (Methuen) and Eyes on Stalks 2002 (Methuen) and You Never Know poetry collection 2011. Currently co-directing Dead Good Guides to facilitate new secular ceremonies for Rites of Passage, creating “Wildernest”, an elemental garden on the west shore of Morecambe Bay and editing a next collection of poems.
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar
Militant Thistles