Seventeen Years

Some years ago my father made me a deal
If I stopped dossing around, worked hard at school
My future would contain a great deal
I would have vacations, a home, a car and shoes!
A good standard of living and security  
I couldn’t lose....

That was it, Sold! – I loved shoes!
Well I was a teenager and shallow
But took up the books and waited for the spoils to follow
And post school this worked for a good seventeen years
With hard work I had much of what was promised
With minimal tears

Then the rules changed
But we were not told
This scheme we had signed up for  
Was to be put on hold
There was no backup plan, our deal had been a one size fits all
That had guaranteed with hard work we all could all go to the ball!

But we stumbled on
Still believing in the ways of the past
Without any clue  
It wasn’t ever guaranteed to last
That our future would not resemble our parents’ past
And would collapse with a worldwide financial crash

Yes we knew times were tough
And we had seen hard times before
But the difference is
The good times weren’t coming back any more
There was nothing left in the store
No more....

I must excuse my father
This was the deal he had been fed
With which he had had success
And it all sounds so plausible
Once it’s in your head
Kind of like the definition of ‘trickledown effect’

But Cinderella in our modern world
However hard she tries shall not go to the ball
She works a zero hour’s contract
Supplying her own uniform and broom
Starting at 5:00 a.m. and working until who knows when
And the next day (maybe - no guarantees) she gets up and does it all again

No vacations, no castle
Not even those shoes!
As it seems my ‘Right Honourable Friends’
This deal we were sold
Was designed so we could all invest
Yet the majority lose

So at the next election who are you going to choose?
Someone who peddles the same old lie?
With a post-Blair pre-apocalyptic menacing (don’t you trust me?) smile
Or someone who accepts that those guarantees, for us
Were only ever just pie in the sky
Nothing was guaranteed, that we wasted our time....

Personally I might just let it all pass by
With a heavy heart and a big sigh
As not one of them seems to be able to look you in the eye
To tell our generation that we were sold a lie

And had this not fallen down on us
We would have been expected to pass this belief system on
Down to the next generation and perpetuate the wrong
And this crazy merry-go-round would have continued on



Anna Archichek