Adrian Henri

10 April 1932 - 20 December 2000 / Birkenhead, Cheshire

Don'T Worry/Everything's Going To Be All Right

Don't worry
If your boyfriend doesn't treat you right
baby
Everything's going to be all right
come with me
And every poem I write will have your name in it
Don't worry
If the factories and villas cover the countryside
Everything's going to be all right
England will be given back to the animals
and we'll find a home under fern leaves known only to foxes
Don't worry
If I can't afford to buy you coffee after school
Everything's going to be all right
Soon the poem will replace the pound sterling as
international currency
and Britain Will get on the poem standard again
Don't worry
About those lunatics in the government
Everything's going to be all right
The country will be governed by beautiful girls under I8
(and you will let me carry your portfolio home from the
House)
Don't worry About what happened the other night
Everything's going to be all right
They'll give you contraceptive pills shaped like jellybabies
with your milk at playtime
Don't worry about what your Dad says about the younger generation
Everything's going to be all right
There'll be involuntary euthanasia for everyone over 30
not a poet painter or musician.
Don't worry
About the rain
Everything's going to be all right
The streets will be covered with tiny pink flowers
like the ones on your suspender belt
Bathing suits will be banned from beaches
School uniforms will be the only kind allowed in public
Your end‑of‑term report will be marked out of 100 for sex
appeal (and you will be Top of the Form)
Policemen will be beaten up by poets
Trade Unions will be taken over by workers
There'll be 24‑hour licensing
And everything will be on the National Drink Service
your parents will wake us every morning with breakfast
Your teacher will smile at notes saying we stayed in bed late
Your face will be in every art gallery
Your name in every book of poetry
So Don't
worry Everything's going to be all right.
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