MIRROR IMAGE

(After the 26/12/2004 tsunami, TV news, in contrast with his carrier "Mission Accomplished"
pitch, seemed to show a new 'compassionate' George Bush.)


Look back upon that news-film, and on this,
The duped depiction of twin Presidents.
See what a smirk was leaking from these lips -
The spoilt child's sneer, the gall of private wealth,
An eye death-lit, to flinch and then destroy,
A pose most like a Lindbergh in his pride
New lighted on such deck as George once shunned;
A sequenced 'triumph' and screened form indeed
Where every frame did seem to tell a tale
That gave fair warning of a vicious sham.
This was your George Bush. Look you now what follows.
Here seems one Other, like a sinner saved
Purging his murd'rous brother. Have you eyes?
Could you his counterfeit compassion trust
Who first had forged himself? Ha, have you eyes?
You cannot bank bought votes, for in this age
The Diebold die is not yet cast in Asia
And waits upon the peoples: and what people
Would buy this fake for that? What Fox was it
Would lure you to that Bush's meaner earth?
Shockjocks, where is your shame? Convulséd seas,
If they, unswollen by melt waters, can
With awesome floods poor men lay waste, what depths
Will any faked 'men' plumb? New credits roll
When corporate investors credence claim
For either image, midst a warming world -
Until their frames burn out. Both do but live
In rank stench of that Whited charnel House,
Stewed in corruption, sweetened and passing bucks
To gild each one's account. Both murderers and villains,
Knaves that are not one hundredth part the worth
Of their preceding Chief, a vice of fakes,
Thieves of the Constitution and fair rule,
Who happiness' pursuit has stolen from men's hearts
To ransom it in blood.

                    (Apologies to William Shakespeare)