No More Mr Nice Guy

As you stand tonight with sparklers in hand,
Spare a thought for Guys across the land,
As they're tossed upon their funeral pyres,
Ready to be consumed by raging fires.

Symbols of a yorkshire papist,
An ill-fated anarchist,
Way ahead of his time,
Who failed to complete his heinous crime.

408 long years ago,
Guido Fawkes hit an all time low,
When in his wisdom he did try,
To blow king and parliament sky high.

The gunpowder plot never caught fire,
Guy's quartered corpse was left in the mire,
With today's government causing the nation such pain,
Shall we get him back to try all over again?

Biscuit: Paterson's Shortbread and Biscuit Assortment

Taste test: 8 out of 10
Cost: a penny......

NB: The Scottishness of the shortbread got us thinking about James I (also James VI of Scotland)  and his near downfall at the hands of Guy Fawkes

Mikado Chocolate Sparklers

This October half-term, Jo left us a gift.

Mikado, a thin, straight straw of a biscuit.

One we all liked, a cracker and a sparkler,

although for us the chocolate could be darker.

Mikado, we thought the name was Chinese,

and the Chinese invented the gunpowder

that Guy Fawkes laid for a bang far louder.

Soldiers found him, with a match, on his knees.

Judges decided to string him up high.

Now all that remains is the shabby old guy,

ragged and stuffed, an ugly, grinning mask,

slumped by a wall where the children ask

for your money and mine.  Mikado, the name

it turns out, of a European game,

where the highest stick is the Japanese

ruler.  ‘Would you like another one?’  ‘Yes please.’

As for the biscuits, the poem Brian forgot

and if he could he’d have eaten the lot.

Biscuit: Mikado

Taste test: 8 out of 10
Cost: £1.39 from Waitrose in Romsey