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Josephine Corcoran

The poem ‘If’ by Glyn Maxwell from his incredible book ‘The Big Calls’ just published by small UK indie press Live Canon, reworkings of famous poems about recent events, including the UK government response to the pandemic, tabloid press phone hacking, the Met Police, migrant deaths and more. This poem is about the lack of building regulations that led to the Grenfell fire. Brilliant political poetry.

If If you would make an ugly thing look shiny, Or make an aged thing look good as new, Or engineer a saving, though it's tiny, To suit the corporation hiring you; If you would make it pretty from a distance Or come in under-budget by the date, If you would hit your mark and meet resistance By never meeting it till it's too late; Then you might turn your thoughts to aluminium, Or polyethylene, or PIR, The cheaper stuff professional opinion Knows will burn like fuel but there you are; And once it burns kill any who inhaled it, It being part-composed of cyanide Or, if these compounds took a test and failed it, You might rename them slightly, let it slide; Or, when the troublemakers make their trouble, Prolong the work or pine for luxuries Like water-sprinklers, hallways clear of rubble, Lights that function, fripperies like these, You'll hear them out but threaten legal action None can fight and if one night in bed They all stay put because of an instruction Meant for buildings where a fire can't spread - You're not alone, in fact you're one of many, Unnumbered are the ways to wink it through; Some are convenience and most are money, Some what we did, most what we didn't do; Ours is not the world and all that's in it, Ours is how we live and if we care, Ours is everyone's last passing minute; Now you can't say you didn't meet them there.
“Genius. A work of both tradition and sedition, of essential political inquiry. Playful, erudite and passionate, a hymn to the state of the nation." Joelle Taylor Cover of ‘THE BIG CALLS’ by Glyn Maxwell published by LIVE CANON
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