Poetry

January 7, 2019 Poetry , POETRY / FICTION

AFP photo

By

Madame Speaker

On the thirteenth day of Shutdown my Government gave to me

102 female voices in a new army led by Nancy.

And how will ‘I think I would have been a good general’ Trump respond?

Who knows? It’ll probably drive him up the wall.

All those women (lots of pussy there, but they’re not pussycats for stroking, no sir)

The youngest and most diverse in House history

primed to make the President’s life a misery

as he’s pitted against his avowed nemesis,

Pelosi.

As political theatre goes, this one’s a doozy.

So grab your seats, by the TV or Twitter

And watch the second American (un)civil war

explode, implode, unfold and take hold

of our hopes and dreams (or nightmares)

our imaginations and our realities.

Can the Democrats demonstrate

how democracy should work?

Madame Speaker

Over to you.

Dark Side of the Moon Cake

To the winner go the spoils,

victors have their cake and eat it.

So with a Chinese rover on the far side of the moon

– a first for humankind –

is it China’s time to write history?

And leave all our futures behind?

Ambition knows no bounds, they say,

and Beijing’s power is all-pervasive.

An expansionist empire

threatening American hegemony;

can Trump and Uncle Sam take it?

A nation a billion plus strong,

flexing its military muscle

in the South China sea,

building bases in disputed territories,

pushing the boundaries,

saying:

‘Come on, test me’,

has the Pentagon planning for a physical war

whilst the White House threatens one of trade

against the workshop of the world

– is anything not made in China these days? –

the driver of commodities and prices.

The Giant Panda with a voracious appetite

for precious resources and fuel

to feed its manufacturing monster,

its expanding economy,

which pollutes its environment and air;

its citizens regularly suffering, from food and safety scares

while its vast and growing middle class

buys property overseas,

desperate to move its money

from a Motherland still

authoritarian, controlling

a mother not at all keen

to cut her apron strings.

As the Twentieth century was America’s

and the Nineteenth the Brits,

the Twenty First is China’s age.

There’s no ‘Communist’ ‘no-go’ zone.

Space isn’t the final frontier

If they can farm on the moon…

As the East eclipses the West

with the Jade Rabbit’s lunar shadow

we must learn to accommodate

so we can all enjoy a tomorrow.

Warren Paul Glover is a British-Australian writer and actor, based in Sydney. He writes poetry, fiction and stage and screen plays, some of which have been published, performed or produced. He has a BA (Hons) in Sociology and, after fifteen years or so working for UK trade unions, mostly in the health sector, Warren moved from London to Scotland with the intention of doing a Masters in Global Health and Social Policy at Edinburgh University. While waiting for his Masters to start Warren enrolled on some short creative writing courses, also at Edinburgh Uni, and after writing poems about avocados and wardrobes he decided that this was more the stuff he wanted to write about, so he pulled the plug on his Masters. After emigrating to Australia in 2010 Warren did a playwriting course at the Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney, a novel writing course at the Sydney Writers’ Centre and an acting course at Sydney Drama School. His made his Australian stage debut as Lord Montague in Romeo and Juliet. Warren is a member of the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG).