Can you hear that thunder rolling
across the leaden sky?
Can you see that lightening flashing
murderously on high?
While the good Earth shakes and shudders
and rocks and reels and creaks
While your system shakes and stutters
and for its cold grave seeks
Can you see your standards crumbling
to a sick rhythmic beat?
And much vaunted morals tumbling
into the sewer neat?
Can you smell the ripe corruption
rise from the steamy swamp?
Where all your captains and your kings
elect to pitch their camp
For your centuries of plunder
of pillage, death and woe
Have so long seen their climax
and are about to go
Can you see the end is coming,
arrogant bourgeoisie
To your anachronistic system
that exploits mine and me?
Can you see the skies are weeping
with mankind’s bitter tears?
But there is a new world coming
I hear the distant cheers
Can you hear that thunder rolling
across the leaden sky?
Can you see that lightening flashing
murderously on high?
by William Hunt-Vincent
This poem was the sent to the editors by the author just a few weeks before his death in 2014. We are humbled and inspired to note the revolutionary optimism that characterised Comrade William’s outlook until the very last, despite the difficulties of ill health in his final years and despite the defeats he had seen his class suffer during his lifetime.
We share our comrade’s belief that the British working class will ultimately prove itself up to the task that history has placed before it.
> Obituary for Billy Hunt-Vincent , Lalkar, January 2015
