The Wisest Fool in Washing Town

His finger hovers,

we imagine,

over the big red button.

 

In reality there are codes;

numbers and letters

generated by algorithm,

perhaps stored on a USB,

but he will have them

written down

on a sheet

of foolscap

 

- hidden in plain sight -

the pileus on his head,

marked ‘D’ for -

“Doomsday”-

perhaps?

 

His words expose him:

“a disproportionate response”

is not the right reaction,

nor even, surely, what he meant?

 

 

But it is the carnival time

the time for ‘Roll up! Roll up!

Meet the bearded lady

and the elastic man!’

The barkers summon

the gullible to the election

sideshow.

 

“We need a strongman in politics!”

Whisper it, Charlie Rogers,

but there’s a reason

Bruto the Strong

doesn’t do

the circus’s books.

 

 

Our hero is one for

the master stroke

as futile as the fairy feller’s:

he should remember

that tactics win the battle

but strategy wins the war.