By: David Dumouriez

THE IDEAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT

The ideal form of government would be
dictatorship - with me as the dictator.
I’d be a kindly, smiling leader ...
when the feeling took me.
I’d mean to give my people perfect lives ...
but always get distracted.
I’d intend to shun luxurious living ...
and then relent.
I wouldn’t fill my guts while others starved ...
well, I might.
I’d not indulge my long-established vices ...
but rather look for new ones.
I wouldn’t keep the money gained from taxes ...
or would I?
I’d not have people zapped without fair trial ...
all the time.
And I’d favour those who praised me most ...
but not respect them.
In fact, I’d just be human.

BETWEEN ME AND BEAUTY

How often boredom in the street’s
suspended by a beauteous sight:
a glimpse of black cascading hair,
a distant view of muscles tight.
How the expectation gathers
as gradually her being nears.
Then how great the disappointment
as suddenly she disappears.
A giantess eclipses her.
A street is opportunely crossed.
An entry to a shop is made.
Whatever, she’s forever lost.

It’s a compulsion, nothing less,
this longing for superlatives.
It’s an illusion from the first,
but what are the alternatives?
Its logical result, perhaps:
another prospect stops the breath,
there comes a strain, a slip, a fall,
and then an ignominious death.