The Vanity Author

I am used to the idea of 'the vanity publisher',
the business where manque writers
are taken for a ride on their own vanity
as they pay to see their work in print,
and then have to work out
how to get famous enough through the media
to recoup the money spent on publishing.

I am also used to some politicians
having a gift for writing fiction
that meant to merely entertain
and is a sideline on their career.

What I have hitherto been unaware of
is the political vanity author,
who wants to be known for writing a book,
makes notes and does interviews
for a ghost writer to make sense of,
and publishes the result as if they
had something to do with how it was assembled
when privately they don't read, much less do they write.

But then these politicians believe
in the power of extemporised speech,
which has no dept of reason
with which to convict anyone of any idea
-there is just their charisma
to persuade their listeners
that there are hidden depths
of wisdom in their nonsense.