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OK

Ok,

Ian Svenonius+


So maybe 

The class divide?


Is it really a whole class?


True I don’t really get certain segments

I share my life with


Due to my upbringing perhaps?


But we're not talking POOR PEOPLE*


This is something else


He'll say 

I'm splitting hairs


On what is a STRUCTURAL thing

 

Artists in the country

Often share my problem.

 

And those segments 

We struggle with

Don’t really get us

Either.

 

Some might say that its ok to rev your engines at the lights 

& make a lotta hullaballoo with your modified engines and exhausts

All night


Really it’s just competing interests.

 

Some people like to break the law a lot

Speeding and driving dangerously high on something and cruising for fights.

For some people it’s FRESH AIR.

 

The cops sure don’t seem to care.

The boys are out every night outside my window

Speeding past.


Ah, Dandenong Road!


They never seem to get caught.

So why stress?

 

Really, I just don’t like loud noises much.


Never have.


& I’m selfish about my sleep.

 

But it might be said

"You enjoyed the Powdermonkeys' gig that night?"

 

Sure,

Look how that ended.

 

But do we judge things only by their endings.

 

Because of course,

Anyone can slip in the shower.

 

Is a later end preferable to an earlier one,

If the journey was good?

 

If they didn’t send me to f&*ing

Teach these kids

Who don’t want to learn

Maybe I wouldn’t stress so much,


Because they get to use weapons

While I must be gentle.

 

At 52,


Exhausting.

 

I deserve a fucking medal

For the ‘tours of duty’

 

And just saying I also have PTSD

To show for it

 

& I need some peace and quiet.

 

Ok, then,

Go & live somewhere quiet.

 

The short answer:

I can’t afford those places.

 

And so here we are.

Me on my laptop

Whining.

 

& the boys

Expressing themselves

Their way.

 

Class warfare

In short

 

And like all wars,

Everyone’s miserable.

 

Do we really have nothing in common?

 

Can we ever meet in good faith?

 

Will the powers-that-be ever support us

To make the best of our shared space?

 

That our ‘truce between gritted teeth’

Might actually become PEACE?

 

+ Ian Svenonius makes the neo-Marxist claim that the Class System is the dominant player in culture.

(see Super-Natural Strategies for making a Rock 'n' Roll Group (2012)).

*As we know Australia pays its male tradies more than its professionals.

 

©Malachi Doyle 2023.


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