The Constructed Public

- The fairy tail worker guaranteed freedom from poverty.

- The supposed shelf stackers that never needed a food bank charity

- The idea of a pensioner that’s got anything for their children to inherit

- The made-up single mother that isn’t fucking desperate

- The conceptual refugee in Calais who can come to claim asylum by proper means

- The definitely real disabled people, sure they can afford their breathing machines

- The imaginary unhoused person In clean clothes for a job interview

- The confected veteran that gets the respect and care due.

- The concocted youth, content with the future prospects inferred

for themselves, not to mention all life on Earth!

These are the members of a constructed public,

play actors in a justifying myth for a system that fucks us.

The unrecognisable masks the rich and politicians force upon us

are strangers - and force us to ask;

How can we tolerate their rule

when it’s so clear they don’t know us?