Sold Out (not a love poem) 
(March '04)
 
This desperate little man dodges and swivels
on his self-made pedestal of power.
 
Twisting under the shadow of a younger, hungrier man
soon to preciptitate his fall from grace
from his mountain of deceipt
piled high with lies -
does he not realise he traps himself
with every promise he breaks  ?
 
Plato might describe this man as living in cave
chained by the neck, unable to see the whole view
seeing only straight ahead
his personal goal
to eclipse Menzies
become the greatest Liberal leader 
this country has known.
 
This man, who began his fall from grace
when he told his first big lie 
so long ago
when he declared
'never ever will there be a GST'.
 
When first he broke an election promise
saying 'no, no, no, no, no, that was a 'non-core promise'.
 
When he conspired to deceive
and turn his back, and not hear
about boat-children never 'thrown in the water'.
 
When first he fell utterly in love
with another little man - George B.
fell right under his spell, promised him
anything to ingratiate himself.
 
Committing our troops to fight
in a morally wrong, illegal war
pre-emptively invading a sovereign country
besmirching our proud elgalitarian reputation.
 
A man, who many would call an idiot (or worse)
for making us in one, brief, tragic moment
a natural target for terrorism.
 
When he promised compliance to a 'free-trade' deal
benefitting only America, putting in danger our PBS -
low-cost medicine for the old, the sick and the poor
selling business and farmers out.
 
When this blinkered little man
with his grasping heart of stone
his 1950's mean-spirited, narrow mentality
filled us with fear to get out votes
lost us completely, with his bully and his bluster
when he first began to love his power
more than his own people.
 
 
 
P. Sidney 2004