Crack-Down Tribunal

(Re Jack Straw's 'Community Treatment Orders' for the mentally ill)

Borderline Personality Disorder –
Everybody welcome to the edge!
It’s the cripples’ convocation;
We’re the tin end of the wedge.

Rattling jars of medication cocktails,
Pinballs batted in eternal circles,
Listen to the words of wisdom:
“Do what they tell you; don’t ask questions;
Take what they give you, don’t ask question.”

It’s the Crack-Down Tribunal;
Of great sorrow be expectant.
Crack-Down Tribunal;
Governmental disinfectant!

Ever felt stuck with a discard label,
Shred of wet rag in the midnight drizzle?
Hope comes shining through the cracks;
The flames rise high as the hiccups fizzle.

Ever hammered on a DSS perspex panel,
Been head on with some po-faced nerd
Who just can’t cope, so he ups the dosage;
Remember the voices that you heard –

Do you hear voices?
Do you hear voices?

It’s the Crack-Down Tribunal;
Of great sorrow be expectant.
Crack-Down Tribunal;
Governmental disinfectant!

When the hypocritical is Hippocratic,
The autocratic gets automatic,
So you’d better get mentally acrobatic
And stuff your heads with anti-static!

It’s the Crack-Down Tribunal;
Of great sorrow be expectant
Crack-Down Tribunal;
Governmental disinfectant!

David Russell is the editor of Poetry Express Newsletter, which promotes creative endeavour by and for sufferers from Mental Distress. Read other articles by David.