CCTV

Walking through London
You’ll be caught on camera
Some 300 times.

Big Brother’s robots
Will follow your every move.
Star on State TV!!!

Do you know yourself?
Other people think that they
Know all about you

Solely by sticking
Their electronic noses
Into your business.

Banks of cameras
Are logging all your movements:
‘Here,  follow that one.’

Invisible sneaks
And electronic tell-tales
Exchange your data:

Secretive software
Sells your profile
To security

Or market research,
Which maps your behaviour
Twenty-four seven –

Forcing money’s rule
Over the regulated
Lab-rats in their maze:

‘Don’t step out of line,
Interfere with the traffic
Or look suspicious –

For uniformed goblins
Can appear out of nowhere
To freeze-frame your life.

Yet you can subvert
All this high-tech surveillance
With a low-tech mask.

Real terrorists,
In any case, hide behind
Banks and governments.

Heathcote Williams

Photos: Max Reeves (from the album The Forest)