We May Yet Hope

We tried our best

and believed

we taught our children

sensitivity, intelligence

appreciation toward

the benefits of hard work

and a fine aesthetic sense.

The shock!

to discover

on the dart board

passed so many times

never before noticed

stapled photographs

at points of

highest benefit.

She to whom

we owe allegiance

smiling deathlessly

her face pockmarked

by unerringly

directed darts.

And there they are

the Prime Minister

and all those elected

to high posts in government

irremediably scarred

barely recognizable.

Does this behaviour

defy patriotism?

Have we raised a

viper's nest of anarchists?

c.1979