I first came across Carol Ann Duffy when (many years ago) I read ‘Warming her Pearls’ – which I thought the most memorable poem in an anthology of new writing. And I’ve enjoyed plenty of her poems since then – particularly The World’s Wife.
But this was just awful. What to pick out?
We’ve had our pockets picked,
the soft, white hands of bankers,
bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;
we want it back.We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.
We want new running-tracks in his name.
Twitter has responded with ironic glee, and here’s a digest of some of the best parodies (thanks to @Max Dunbar1 for link). Here are a couple more of my favourites:
‘London is full of Olympic Cheer/ Insert trite left wing platitude here’ (@jeremybrier)
‘I hope my poem will bring back Labour/ And another book deal from Faber & Faber (@Ilana).
Anyone got any more suggestions?