And So, At Last...

It had once been possible To believe that a night such as this Would end in something proportionate A winner A loser A mood the papers could print And a direction the country could be said to have chosen That language arrived again tonight As it always does On time In order Pressed, folded, and laid out Beside the figures Mandate Warning Responsibility Message The people have spoken The country has decided The nation has chosen And yet what came through the count Was not conviction in that older sense But arrangement Not silence resolved into consent But fragments translated into custody Not one country speaking with force But several speaking at once Through a system trained to hear one answer Some came to choose Some came to block Some came to calculate Some did not come at all Still the seats were filled Still the maps were coloured in Still the old words stepped forward To explain what had been done There was, as ever, enough result To satisfy procedure Enough order To stage authority Enough language To bless the arithmetic And so, at last The country was entrusted to the winner The Liberal Democrats, in coalition with Operational control transferred