Poets can't be a Business

Poets can't be a business

So the tax man said 'Poets cant be a business'
it must be the risk involved in self employment,
is too great for the poetic,
for the government to take a chance.
So 'the man' decided that Poets cant be a business!
Arms manufactures, prostitutes, Oil producers can,
Bankers who lose a trillion pounds at the bookies
costing us a million jobs in the process,
and crashing the world economy,
they can be a business,
but poets....no!.....poets cant be a business!

Yeats, Keats, Shelley, Byron, i'm sorry lads,
but your out of business!
Shakespeare, just stick to the plays that pay,
then YOU can be a business,
but poets, no!.... no, im afraid you cant be a business!
The Arts have never brought in any revenue here,
they never sat a seat on a stool with good cheer,
or filled a drinking house with music and beer!
they just aren't lucrative enough you see.
So Poets!, No....no...they cannot be a business!

If poets were a business where would it end?
every man jack writer and his friend,
would settle for 1 meal a day,
wear three jersey's to keep the cold away,
and scream through some virtual mailbox,
just to have his say!
No...no!, poets...Poets cant be a business, you see,
they might be in the business,
of looking out for you and me,
or living off their words, or wisdom, self sufficiently,
but they cannot be a business!...for free!

They simply can-not-be-a-busi-ness!
because if they were a business, well!
too many eyes might be watching,
too many minds might start pondering and wondering,
why it is that simple men cant live free,
but those who hold the reins of this democracy,
offer jobs and gratuity to friends and family.
No....i am the Tax Man, and i have spoken.
Poets cannot be a business, not in this land,
this 'green and pleasant land'!
poets, No!...Poets,...they cant be a business!
can they?

© Richard Michael Parker 2010