Halal Hammer
 

“The young of North Africa are increasingly finding an outlet in home-grown heavy metal.”   The Independent Times

 
The veils hide the mascara,
The crimson lips and purple hair,
And even through a burqa’s slit
The cat-eye contacts stare.
The tats are mostly stick-ons
And the piercings come right out;
These rebel yells are smart enough
To know when not to shout.
 
The Imams don’t approve, of course,
They fear the Devil (or the Norse!)
Has led the youth astray.
But many a goth, a mosher or geek
Is still a good Muslim the rest of the week
Whatever the papers may say.
No souls have been sold, no Faustian deal,
Just amps and guitars and a grunt and a squeal.
 
There’s probably others more doubtful,
But music is not the cause -
For would they still be faithful
In the Taliban’s harsh laws ?
The Great Satan’s power-chords
Do not ‘corrupt’ alone,
For censor foreign songs, and they
Will simply write their own.
 
The Imams don’t approve, of course,
But grumpy teachers hold no force
To tempt the children back.
For ev’ry skull, and cross, and vamp,
Is less Satanic, more high-camp,
And who doesn’t love to dress in black ?
So, headbanging hedonists: hairy kids or heretics ?
Either way, the thrashers come to give them forty licks.

Martin Choules

If you have any comments on this poem, Martin Choules would be pleased to hear from you.