Double Take - The Time Has Come

The Time Has Come

By Warwick Evans

Director:

(to stage) Next please! (aside) Oh God, why do I allow myself to be roped in to these insufferable poetry reading competitions? None of them are any good.

Assistant:

Only one more before we break for lunch.

Director:

Oh thank God. (to stage) Well, come on! Yes, you sir, get on with it! The sooner you start - the sooner we'll finish.

Bard:

Well, what I've brought with me can best be described as ... well it's a sort of ... How can I put it? ... a kind of ... well I think it captures what it is that each of us ... er, that is, society in general feels about the, er ...

Director:

(to stage) Oh for pity's sake, I'm not interested! Nobody here is in the least bit interested. We all just want to get out of here. Now you have something there on a piece of paper in front of you. So why don't you do yourself and the whole world a favour and just read it! (aside) Please God, let him finish quickly.

Bard:

What was that?

Director:

(to stage) Just read it!

Bard:

The time has come, Chris Patten said, to talk of many things.

To drop a democratic line - and see which way it swings.

But China says he's gone too far - and wants to clip his wings.

The cadres say his package goes beyond the Basic Law.

The trouble is democracy - he wants to give us more.

The way Beijing attacks poor Chris is almost like a war.

And when the market takes a dive, guess who's the one it blames.

Beijing sulks, and rants and raves, and calls Chris Patten names.

Then swiftly asks the right to stage its first Olympic games.

So, what precisely China wants is never very clear.

The way it bashes Patten seems to worsen every year.

But how Beijing will miss him - when he is no longer here!