Launching HMS Ark Royal, 1950

Victorious Britain

still looking defeated

five years on

rationing and malaise

haircurlers and debt

bombsites and Brylcreme

Union Jacks out of nowhere

children out of school

lined up in the rain

primed and raring to wave

all along Borough Road

past Tranmere Rovers

up Prenton Road West

and down to the docks

Rain stopped on command

queen in hurry, late for lunch

open top Rolls flashed by

missed her, didn't see her

waved flags anyway

Ship slipped into Mersey

lots of broken glass

sailed round the world

between repairs and refits

called in here and there

made chests puff out

defending the realm

no action, no scare

didn't make Britain great again

scrapped like the others

could've had a new railway

like the defeated

Still, got her majesty's loo seat

in Cammel Laird's museum

fur-coated and heated

Birkenhead News cutting

caught me waving my flag