New Snipes For Old

I often read the opinions of Republicans
in many countries decrying their government
from the position of opposition, via the press.
They snipe at the actions of those in power
as if with their new wealth, but no power,
they feel it is right to publicly complain
about perceived threats to their privilege.

If those complaining got their way
what would they replace the current lot with? 
A new system that was at least as badly bent,
the better to improve reasons for complaining?  

1 + 0 = 0

in many places, particularly on Facebook,
comment is free at the point of thought
for those think they have the imagination.
But where there is no reciprocation
all language becomes miscommunication. 

Units Of Detachment

On this day, widely known as 'Fat Cat Tuesday',
the day when collectively UK based City Bankers
give themselves more in annual bonuses
than the annual wage of every ordinary citizen
in the country combined, it is worth noting
how we all detach, each from the other
and whatever we have we can, and will, use
to separate ourselves from other people.

This activity of detaching is something
we have no unit of measurement for,
any more than we have ways of measuring
how some folk insist on being deferred to.

But it must be said that the more money anyone has
the more detached they will be from those with less.
And the rich will arrange it that they are not even seen
to be detached from the society and community
that creates their weath by determining that their money
(a measure of their detachment) should remain un-discussed.
They want to become invisible, as they set up
nearly everybody else as 'well underneath them'.  

Deep Science

I am mildly bored with all the anecdotes
about the number and variety of animal species
that occasionally exhibit homosexual behaviour,
concocted to tell me that affections between humans
of the same gender 'are completely natural'.

I am looking for the future in deep science
-gay behaviour in plants which prove that affections
between people of the same gender are quite natural
but also that homosexuality need not be camp and noisy.

Unseasonal Greetings

For some Christmas is like bad weather,
particularly when it starts rather early.
So, to avoid it, they open their umbrella
-or even better; they move away.
By taking a longer holiday....

Uncompetitive Living

Failures survive best in cultures of understatement.

A Gentleman Pansy Writes....

When I was old enough to accept
being shut up and made to listen
I was frequently told how much
my good manners were required
to support the local social order.
Whatever others said and did against it.

When I was older and I could answer back
I found that the cards were stacked,
against me. A gentleman was a male
who was readily deferred to. Undeclared
I had become a pansy, a homosexual,
because everyone refused to defer to me.

But a gentleman is not just someone
who is deferred to, but also a person
who takes their complaint to its source
and to become a proper gentlemanly pansy 
I 'came out' to myself, and to all around me.
Particularly my family who were the last people
on earth who wanted me to know I was gay.
They already knew it and didn't support me.

I became much younger for no longer hiding,
and I have stopped myself being pushed around
In the same way I now resist giving other people
cause for gossip, after the years of self doubt.
I am visible, and don't let people blank me out.

They became the shrinking violets, not me.