The Truth Of Christmas Present

Oh, shove it, you peasant.

Stick it right up your bum.

You call that a present?

Well, I call it dumb.

It’s not what I wanted,

it’s not what I need,

it’s not what you promised.

It’s something to read.

I wanted an iPhone,

I wanted some tech,

not books, not these dull tomes,

not this great pile of dreck.

Don’t tell me they’re classics,

like Shakespeare and that.

I wanted some plastic

that lasts, not this tat.

Who cares about learning

from books nowadays?

Books are for burning,

they make a right blaze.

An old writer said so,

some writer called Ray.

That’s not what he meant? Oh,

whatever you say.

See, books are a no-no,

they’re just for old plebs.

Whatever we must know,

we get from the Web.

Google and Meta

and Bing and all that,

they’re all so much faster

for finding the facts.

Yes, there’s some odd views,

agree with you there,

like COVID, and fake news,

Tianenman Square,

Navalny, the Ukraine,

the care homes, and sleaze.

They might lie with disdain,

but then so might these.

The fact that it’s printed,

that it’s down in a book,

is no guarantee

it’s not written by crooks.

I think what we all need,

what would help every youth,

is something that we could read

that tells us the truth.