How can we crack the vote? We can't - it's made
of blood. It's built of creaking spines and skulls,
surrounded by a hundred filthy gulls
grown fat and sleek from scraps piled in the shade.
No, we can't crack it, only grab its tail
and climb the gory bones straight to the neck
and cling on for dear life, we scrabbling specks,
we insects, hurtling through the fiery gale.
No, we can't crack the vote, but we can ride
and scream, and pull the reins, and swear, and spit.
The beast will unload fifty tons of shit
because of us. We'll die a bit inside
and think of those we save. No honour's worth
making bones for its wings, even the earth.
Margaret Corvid is a writer, activist and professional dominatrix based in the South West of the UK. She is a contributing editor of Salvage. She is a New Statesman blogger, and her writing also appears regularly in the Guardian, and Cosmopolitan. She writes on sex work, sexuality, gender, and many other labour issues.