Leunig's Poem

Michael Leunig's cartoons are always brilliant, but he also writes poetry.

The topic is privatization.

Here's the text, in case you want to save it.
It's worth learning off by heart, or perhaps being set to music.

It works well with Honky Tonk Women.

They're privatising things we own together.
They're flogging off the people's common ground.
And though we're still connected by the weather
They say that sharing things is now unsound.

They're lonelifying all the public spaces.
They're rationalising swags and billabongs.
They're awfulising natures lively places, 
Dismantling the dreaming and the songs.

Their macho fear of flabby, soft sensations
Makes them pine for all things hard and lean.
They talk of foreign market penetrations
And throbbing private sectors. It's obscene.

They're basically unloving types of creatures.
With demons lurking underneath their beds.
You'll notice that a necktie always features.
To keep their hearts quite separate from their heads.

So if they steal away the people's treasure, 
And bring the Jolly Swagman to his knees,
They can't remove the simple common pleasure
Of loathing public bastards such as these.