The Second Term (With apologies to William Butler Yeats)

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Yearning and yearning for a comforting liar

The people will not hear the truth, nor trust the truth-teller;

Stories fall apart, the centre is not real;

Mere dull geometry to gull a duller world.

Our poll-driven narrative is loosed, but everywhere

The target audience refuses to be wowed.

The best shun social-media, while the worst

Still tweet with manic imbecility.

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Surely some course-correction is in hand?

Surely it’s time to take our Second Term in hand!

Our Second Term! Hardly are those words out

Than grainy video-clips, recorded in the Eighties,

Download to my device. Images of conferences past;

A shape with Jim Anderton’s body and Matt McCarten’s head;

A gaze blank and pitiless as Tova O’Brien’s

Is holding a media conference, while all around it

Reel journos of the indignant Fourth Estate.

The cellphone screen goes blank; but now I know

That declaring “They are Us”

And stamping out the coronavirus

Were just the first rough drafts of an historical drama

Still struggling with its author to be born.

 

Chris Trotter

2020

22 COMMENTS

  1. You have too much time on your hands Chris. But here is my contribution to a poetic thread.

    Jacinda stood on a burning deck.

    Picking her nose like mad.

    Rolling it up into little balls

    And flicking it at her Judith Collins.

  2. She came.

    She saw.

    She smiled.

    The banks and corporations and 1%ers were happy for a while.

    The smile morphed into a frown.

    She left.

    She left the country bin a worse state than before.

    Her personal wealth increased enormously.

    Mission Accomplished.

    The markets collapsed.

    The economy collapsed.

    The environment collapsed.

    It was all for a handful of baubles.

    • A thing of fiscal policy is a joy for ever:
      Its usefulness increases; it will never
      Pass into insolvency; but still will keep
      A bank account flush for us, the 1%, and a life
      Full of sweet achievement, and wealth, and quiet exploitation.

      John Keats

  3. A thing of fiscal policy is a joy for ever:
    Its usefulness increases; it will never
    Pass into insolvency; but still will keep
    A bank account flush for us, the 1%, and a life
    Full of sweet aspirations, and wealth, and quiet exploitation.
    John Keats

  4. “The Miracle?”

    The miracle
    Not in my life
    Has the god
    Visited in his feet

    You can’t be serious
    Remember
    Let’s do this
    Let’s keep moving

    Making up jokes
    Is no longer fun
    For this written play
    By whom.
    For our Covid Queen?

    The castle and
    The heavenly staircase
    Has shown itself,
    The portcullis and moat is no more

    Storm the gates, the barricades
    Shake the EQC State to it’s roots!
    Rebuild NOT from the past
    But FOR the bottom dwellers,
    And see the miracle in flesh

    This is godpower Princess!
    Will you set fire to the fire economy,
    Finance, Insurance and Real Estate?
    Orr will u sit and watch the table overturned . .

    Once again . . .

  5. “The Miracle?”

    The miracle
    Not in my life
    Has the god
    Visited in his feet

    You can’t be serious
    Remember
    Let’s do this
    Let’s keep moving

    Making up jokes
    Is no longer fun
    For this written play
    By whom.
    For our Covid Queen?

    The castle and
    The heavenly staircase
    Has shown itself,
    The portcullis and moat is no more

    Storm the gates, the barricades
    Shake the EQC State to it’s roots!
    Rebuild NOT from the past
    But FOR the bottom dwellers,
    And see the miracle in flesh

    This is godpower Princess!
    Will you set fire to the fire economy,
    Finance, Insurance and Real Estate?
    Orr will u sit and watch the table overturned . .

    Once again . . .

  6. It is an ancient barrister,
    And he stoppeth one of three.
    “By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

    Ah sod it…

  7. The world is on fire, and I have only two hands,
    But the fucking left keep making demands.
    They hold me to imagined ideals,
    Their faint praise now replaced by squeals.
    I made no promises like I did before,
    And the electorate replied and gave me more.
    My base is now of a different hue,
    A little less Green, a lot more blue.
    Why can’t you simple folk see,
    The choice was me or fucking Judy?

    Poetry was never my thing…

  8. My amateur actor father worked on a more representative of Napier re-lyricisation of a Gilbert and Sullivan play for a possible High School production in his retirement. My sister-in-law’s amateur actor father called it appalling. A lot of screwing up of faces and dropping down of volumes describing it. Or, great fun.

    Afewknowthetruth’s opinion that Jacinda is lightweight through and through, is all about the CV like Blair, reverberates with me. Hard to take her VERY seriously. Why I think the last of the welfare state adults should take the reins. Since between us we know what needs to be done. Not me of course, except in a letter-writing capacity.

    • Many years ago I was told by someone ‘in the know’ that Tony B Liar had some difficulty deciding whether to make his fortune via the Conservative Party or the via Labour Party.

      He decided the Labour Party would provide a better path to personal wealth because they were more susceptible to being lied to and misled.

      Not forgetting that prior to entering politics in NZ, Adern spent a lot of time amongst acolytes of Tony B Liar, we could draw some obvious conclusions, especially in view of her high-level qualification in lying…oops, communication.

      ‘Aunty Helen’ (remember those Pledge Cards, with the photoshopped image that made the old hag look like a dolly bird? and which she reneged on in a multitude of ways) scored a comfortable position at the UN, with special responsibility for looting Africa; I think they called it development. You know, creating money out of thin air to assist corporations extract oil and minerals, whilst ensuring the indigenous folk get trampled a bit more.

      Now that the shit is hitting the fan big time, and since Adern is so flavour-of-the-decade amongst the real powers that be, she could decide that ‘family responsibilities must take precedence over saving NZ’ and retire for a few months before taking up a position at the UN -maybe with special responsibility for looting the South Pacific so she doesn’t have too far too travel.

      That could be called ‘Aid to Developing Economic Relations of Nations’. She’d be good at that with all the words flowing like a river and no actual substance to back them up, as per the usual UN standard of performance.

      • People who are more susceptible to being lied to and misled, are the honest people.
        Being honest themselves, they tend to accept and believe what others tell them.

        The others are so convoluted, manipulative, dishonest, dodgy, smelly and conniving that they look for the angle in even the most innocuous statement. Apparently – according to a psychologist – if they’re like this at a conscious level they’re probably the same at an unconscious level too.

        Professionally trained communicators, know exactly what they’re doing. Liars are idiots – truth is the daughter of time. Poets are best, except for the odd Labour chappie…

  9. Oh yea of little faith
    Who would you rather be
    A National loser
    An ACT gun supporter
    A Green tieless wonder
    A Maori party protestor
    I know who I am glad we have
    It’s neither of the above
    It’s Labour for me and being covid free.

  10. Brilliant, Trotter, brilliant. “manic imbecility”… “pitiless as Tova O’Brien’s”…. outstanding.

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