The salesman from Scottish Power 
who knocks me up with an offer 
of cheaper gas
(but my flat has no gas)
admires the old poster portrait of John MacLean
in my living room.

“I am not here as the accused” –
it quotes MacLean on trial –
“but as the accuser
of capitalism...”
Says this bearded tall young man,
“My wee son’s John Maclean, I heard about him.”
Grinning, as he goes out: “‘Time
is the chrysalis of eternity’,
eh?”
Errm, eh...
Did the Red Dominie say that?
‘Idealist’, ‘gaseous’ even, somewhat, if so.

What I do know is that “Krassivy” MacLean
valued a large idea
more than such an item as cheaper gas
purveyed by a horizontal monopoly
which, as it happens, overcharges me
monthly for my electricity

but I wish this new junior Red John
in his chrysalis well.
May he too fly in the face of monopoly,
winged as a vast bat
not like a butterfly
and perhaps
thus modify eternity.

“Krassivy” is a Russian word which means both “beautiful” and “red”
Angus Calder, historian, poet, essayist, 1942-2008. He was the author of The People's War: Britain 1939-1945 (1969), Revolutionary Empire (1981) and The Myth of the Blitz (1992)
Poetry submissions to thursdaypoems@gmail.com