Incidental Racism Poem by Douglas Scotney

When bosses tried to conscript the worker to serve in World War One,
thinking
we can't afford to be racist and we can only afford to not be racist,
the worker knew 'conscript' meant
'kill him off and get more for less by bringing in workers from Asia'.

In referenda, twice he dealt ripostes.

But bosses had done the damage:
made him incidentally racist,
and fundamentally sceptical about bosses cutting costs.