DONE IN THE BUSH
        (Lines written on 'President' George Bush's
                interview with Trevor Macdonald,
                         ITV, 5th April, 2002)

How a man can dishonour Dishonour
By telling the truth and not lies
Turns, not on the questions he answers,
But on those which he never applies
To any, but men he despises,
While praising himself to the skies.

For he'd honoured his father in Texas,
Whose lone star he'd dried out to be,
And, dimmer than midnight, he'd shone there
And swore that, by 'Sparky', they'd see
'A life for a life' was good scripture
And mere mercy, the 'bleeding heart's' plea.

Then he honestly swore on his office
He'd honour the peoples' mandate,
Forgetting greased palms hold the White House,
Just as power in any rogue state
Slips not from a man unelected,
Till his buyers decide on his fate.

Then he truthfully tore up those treaties
'Bout missiles and forests and gas;
No promise he'd made to fulfil them;
No ungiven word would he pass.
"Hell! Star Wars is always box office,
Just as Esso and Enron's first class!"

For he'd spotted the Good amidst Evil,
Deciding it rested with him,
To immolate far distant people
Who, benighted and morally dim,
Held him, unelected, no better
Than fanatics who rule upon whim.

With the smile of the simple believer
And citing two failures before
He declaimed "Make no mistake 'bout it -
When a dictator's looming, therefore
Us good guys should fire off our weapons
So we're certain there wont be no war."

Thus, if statements of unsullied candour
Were all that a President needs,
No folly could tarnish the office,
No derangement would show where it leads.
A knave's but a fool who's dishonoured,
And he's known not by words but by deeds.

                    (Nigel Stuart)