01/08/2026
An Age of Clowns by Jock Stein
What a clown, holding petticoats
around a pole across a table top
– no balancing above Niagara – pose
for petty poetry fame, eryngium
as a thistly head, sweet peas a bow,
and pale red trousers underneath.
But petals fall off politicians arms
and bare the rods that end up on our backs.
God, give us leaders who will not dress up
the choices that we face, but spill the beans
in all their dull dismay – then help us
take the bit between our teeth. "
