Better Than

from Loudmouth: Page and Pub Poems by Michael Botur

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Quit bitching about your supposed misfortunes. At least your life is better than the 10,000 New Zealanders locked up in jail, deprived of liberty.
Here's a poem on that.

lyrics

Better Than

Enduring a job on Queen Street’s CBD being permanently rushed and busy and paying twelve bucks for half a glass of after-work pinot gris with your team of geeks is better than

havin no job, travelling, hit up Studylink for Durex & LSD
in India or Kho Samui, party on the Ganges, full moon beach
on your OE. Coming home to student loan poverty,

that’s better than having no job, slouched on the couch, watching daytime TV, scrolling Insta aimlessly, which sucks but it’s better than being on home D anonymously, which is better than

Being boxed in a concrete barn on remand, reclining on a slab-pad bed, hands under your head, eating pies and sipping boxes of milk, no stimuli, blue light
so you can’t slit your veins, bleed the shame away, shoelaces

that they confiscate, family cryin at home. This is all better than having whanau zero, foster homes
smoking cones and burgs with bros at 13

Well that, bro, that lowest of the low, that is reality for 10,000 Kiwis from Ngawha to Paparua to Pare Block D
So spare a thought next time you bleat about inequality through your screen in a home of your own, completely free.

credits

from Loudmouth: Page and Pub Poems, released March 7, 2021

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about

Michael Botur Whangarei, New Zealand

Michael Botur is a New Zealand poet and fiction writer of European heritage. He is author of ten books and has won a bunch of bigshot writing awards.
'Loudmouth: Page and Pub Poems' collects 15 years of spoken word verse from one of NZ's most dynamic young poets. Perfect for anyone who loves the personal mixed w the political, a little bit of hip hop and plenty of attitude.
www.nzshortstories.com ... more