50 Leavers and Remainers

Reading:

Leavers and Remainers

Spell the words without initial capitals
And you will see that both sorts
Are the very same people. Us in fact.
It’s how we act at different ages. 
Childhood over, home soon palls 
And we strike out for that unknown territory
Where we may hope to find a new way to thrive,
A place far away where we can have our own say. 
Hence all those Skype and FaceTime calls
To sons or daughters who live
On the other side of the world.

But as we begin to face the end of our days
We discover a need for the old ways. 
No longer free-swimmer roaming open seas
But mollusc latched fast to stable rock. 
Thus nautical metaphors abound 
On walls of pebble-dashed retirement 
Bungalows: ‘Harbour Lights’ or ‘Moorings’. 
(These may be found miles from the shore.) 
Landlubbers also mark that hoped-for finality. 
And so, we see their ‘Journey’s End’ or ‘Mon Repos’. 
Yet while the names they choose for that last stint
Are kitsch, theirs is an honourable want.

How sad it is then that in politics both these emotions
Have been twisted into toxic and mendacious cant.
How strange that in our ever-more divisive conversations
The words themselves are used aslant:
Leavers want to leave elsewhere.
Remainers to remain there!