A pre-election musing.

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Inner Sanctum
 

As Autumn recalls the Capital's beauty

(Wasted foliage dying in style)

Government Ministers head to their duty

To gather a case of denial

 

The Cabinet meets in the plush furnished room

Having pranced for reporters outside

They're all looking splendid in mid-career bloom

Where their egos and ethics collide

 

"Agenda" begins the paper before them

Yet below it the page is quite bare

Members methodically ponder this portent

With well practised omniscient stares

 

The P.M. appears looking cool and robust

His suit of the best foreign label

Then speaks in a manner designed to disgust

The roughest of men at the table

 

"Some backbencher mentioned the dole queues to me

And the Balance of Payments, and stress

Well let me explain so we all can agree

The real issue which we must address

 

"There's only one cause in Australia today

That is truly worth fighting about

And that's whether we'll still be drawing our pay

When the '93 voters are out

 

"Real issues and cold facts are not to be seen

From this moment and until the poll

The object of course is a giant smokescreen

To make Hewson and Fightback! look droll

 

"This week we shall force a debate on the flag

And next week we'll sing a new anthem

And if any democrat vetos a gag

We'll hold his fat pension for ransom

 

"We're the battler's friend and the nation's elite

And we care for our comrades, amen

But how can we help if we're out on the street

Where we'd be useless scum-bags like them

 

"We must keep our efforts directed and clear

Away from these pointless distractions

And if any Member should cry like a steer

I'll castrate his whole bloody faction

 

"Well Gentlemen let us return to our task

To carry us through the election

And if we survive you might venture to ask

Was Keating the new resurrection.

 

 

Michael Reid

May 1992

 

 

© Michael Geoffrey Reid 1992, all rights reserved