It looks so odd to me

It looks so odd to me

Raising a flag in the garden

Saluting without a hat

The dog cocking its leg

Wondering why his master’s voice

Is twisting itself around the words

Of an anthem

He had heard tell of patriotism

The other dogs would gang up

On the waifs and strays passing through

Defending the honour of

The neighbourhood

If it is going to shit

Then let it be their shit

He tried to keep an open mind

But he was an English Bull Terrier

It hurt him that his kin were racists

Nationalism was a big word

But he knew mongrel dogs

Were always the first to be castrated

For their own good

So he had been told

‘The owner’ was a fair man

He said he would never

Give a dog a bad name

But some animals were just plain mean

Does that make me

A better man than he

Just because I don’t wave a flag

Doesn’t make me Jesus

But at least I can count difference

As a valid concept

The Union Jack has been hijacked

The flag of St George

Is wrapped around the shoulders

Of bigots

Who think taking a knee

Is an ultimate fight move

I know kids wave little flags

On sticks

As the royals drive by

The jubilee was a jamboree

Royal weddings are a wet dream

For the royalist

Wave a flag

Surrender your soul

For the promise of a better country

Salute the lie

It makes me want to cry

Does that make me a traitor

Or an internationalist

Caught up

In a populist uprising

It is the same the world over.