Thanks, With An Eye To The Near Term, a poem

Thank you who read these words, 

friends, men, women, children, 

gays, trans, minorities, everybody 

who shepherded this poet 

into the wilderness and out 

again, ensconced and cradled 

in hands, on laps, in hearts. 

in the passenger seat while 

I drove from border town

to watering hole, 

to the city center

to sip cappuccinos, 

nibble cake and sit back 

and smile together

at the surreal stories clowns 

as politicians unfurled 

to bamboozle us 

as we stared catatonic 

at the latest declaration 

of war against our neighbor 

and friend, and war against 

every value our mother 

taught us to believe, 

for the greater good 

and the more fitting society, 

handed over on a tray 

to the Butcher of Queens, 

the Bogey Man of the Tower,

the Quack who says he will stop 

this and that war in the first hour 

on his first day 

(...or the day after..,or never).

Indran Amirthanayagam c) November 27, 2024