Conspiracy (a poem for Joe)
Banging on your door at dawn
Strong-arm tactics – brains or brawn?
Eight hours in a holding cell
What you’ve done – well, who can tell?
Held on evidence unknown
Took your laptop, took your phone
Making plans to stop pollution?
Colluding to cause public nuisance!
It seems that you went to a meeting!
A hanging crime! At least a beating!
Discussing how to clear the air!
Were you a plotter? Were you there?!
You want to stop harmful emissions?
That’s against your bail conditions!
The right to protest? See them ban it!
Hatching plots to save the planet!
Ten of thousands killed in Gaza
Humanitarian disaster
You planned to make your protest heard?
Listen, son, don’t say a word
We thought the young were apathetic
Now you’re being empathetic!
Say “No comment”, hold your quarter
Secret plans to stop the slaughter!
You stand accused of social rupture
Disrupting national infrastructure!
Climate change respects no border
Hatching plots to cause disorder!
You have rights, this land is free
Why don’t you write to your MP?!
Or organise and take a stand
Unionise and raise your hand
Come join us, bring your flags unfurled
Conspire with us to save the world!
In June 2024 and again in March 2025, Janine’s son Joe was arrested and bailed under suspicion of ‘conspiracy’ – conspiracy to commit ‘crimes’ that amount to no more than campaigning on the issues of climate change and Gaza.
