WINING AND DINING
[News item: Senator Cheryl Kernot, an influential politician who purports to represent ordinary people, has lunched with Mr Malcolm Turnbull, a merchant banker who also purports to have the interests of ordinary people at heart and is planning to replace the Queen of Australia with an appointed head of state.]
Slyly winking, banker and senator
Pause for a sip of their Chardonnay,
Each pondering in the folds of the other
How public this luncheon would be.
On the lawn, an honest Australian magpie
Coughs out her waste, selects a black beetle,
Unblinkingly takes slow wing.
If a democrat was as truly a democrat
As a magpie is a magpie,
She'd be more worth knowing!
BRIAN JENKINS
10.10.94
(with apologies to D H Lawrence's Lizard)
[unpublished]