Early Day Not Andrew Motion
It was nothing to fire at,
No Kalash, no Nikov,
Wore no patch, was no pirate
Jolly Roger Mcgough -
It was only some Scousers
Wishing Liverpool luck
But it got up the Houses
Of Commons, and stuck.
It gave even seasoned
Old clerks a surprise:
They were eating their Ts and
Were dabbing their Is.
"This doesn't say sandwich,
Says sarnie - slang word -
There's no rhyme in the language
For sandwich - absurd."
"No dire ode to ruins!"
Each clerk held his nose.
"Poems! Nothing doing!
We are anti. We're prose."
"No verses. Too clever:
They may run up expenses."
No, the government never
Takes leave of its censors.
