It’s like we booby-trapped the future

An open wound bleeding out and there ain’t no hope of suture

I wish I could wish a happy new year

But I’m watching wheels rolling forward to a catastrophic fear

Dormant malice now awake

I barely recognise a world in which this wasn’t a mistake

But the mistake that I won’t make

Is pretending everything we hold dear isn’t now at stake

Before a storm there may be calm

But if you think that means it’s over be prepared to be alarmed

Because the ballot was a bomb

 

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB

 

June 24, November 9

Grief-stricken, the saner citizens came to terms with our decline

I hold passports in both places

A dual-citizen duelling with the thought of all those racists

Walls and borders instead of embraces

So much hate in so many faces

But the sun came up and life went on

And you could almost make believe the worst was never gonna come

Hoping that it can’t happen here

But it always does and always has on this the history is clear

 

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB

 

The ballot was a bomb

X in the box lit the fuse and some forget the fuse is long

It reminds me of oh-nine

All that false hope after the world crashed and you thought you had survived

But unravelling takes time

You’re dangling from a rope; don’t see the strands start to untwine

Because that poison acted slow

The Great Recession already got you but you didn’t even know

Cut by cut they chopped us down

You didn’t notice you were falling till your body hit the ground

So yeah – he’s not even President yet

But I get no comfort from the tweets of the President elect

Or the big business bigots he has chosen to select

Or the petty little grudges he seems unable to forget

And our Brexit may lay in a Schrodinger state

Both in Europe and out until the trigger date

But a stay of execution merely postpones our fate

And can’t erase the result of our referendum of hate

2016 fucked the future – our votes flipped the switch

Is it any wonder those celebrities chose to die and jump the ship?

It hasn’t happened yet, but by the pricking of my thumbs

The ballot was a bomb and something wicked this way comes

 

THE BALLOT WAS A BOMB