Punch and Judy Man
The tide ebbs and flows in Clacton,
Waves advance, pause and then retreat,
Quite unmoved by human conceit
Enjoying the fresh air and fun.
It’s not beyond Westminster’s reach
The squabbling for office and place,
Where everyone’s more than one face.
There’s to be drama on the beach,
A show that’s seemingly funny
And yet is actually grotesque,
The character behind the mask
Only performs for the money.
Once you given all you can spare
You’ll find he is not really there.
D. A.
Penalties
Both captains of England beaming
Out through a betting shop window.
The trophy they hold’s just for show
To entice punters who’re dreaming
World Cup dreams. Footballing success
Against the odds: There is romance
And an outside gamble that chance
Might pay out, and so help to address
The piker’s parlous fiscal state.
Also, there’s national pride at stake,
All lost on a simple mistake;
Seeming perniciousness of fate.
Briefly, the optimism flows,
But then, the final whistle blows.
D. A.
Screenshots from Special Military Ops.
Blazing apartment block, then another
With the length of its east wall sliced away
Exposing bedrooms, beds just made today,
Lounges and kitchens exposed for weather
To make it worse. Child’s buckled tricycle,
One lone shoe, laces knotted in a bow,
From smouldering rubble pram handles show
No sign of humanity. A trickle
Of water from a fractured pipe, shopping
Trolley and a tail fin and an upturned
Turtle of a car crazy glazed and burned,
Thick smoke and dust and masonry dropping.
Once such a site has been cleared, what remains?
Real estate, investment, capital gains.
D. A.
Democracy?
Voters in rotten and pocket boroughs
Were bought and sold for beer, grace and favours,
The squire owned both hustings and sabres
Of the yeomanry; no voting errors
Then, with open ballots. The inducements
These days appear as misinformation,
Encouraging inchoate vexation,
Over stimulated by bombastic rants
Intended to raise the hackles and play
On prejudices of the disengaged,
And so the farce is promoted and staged,
The grand theatrics of democracy.
Should grace and favour of the public will
Falter, the state retains its sabres still.
D. A.
D. A.