Guidelines



Submission Guidelines: Send unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

IN FAR OFF ROME

by Kim Doyle


Cato pronounced their doom.
Concluding most of his speeches
with a Thor, son of Odin phrase;
like “Cathago delenda est.”
Carthage must be destroyed,
and in due course it was razed.

Politicians of today speak out
in the same way as Cato.
Their hammer like phrases,
however, always seem to start
with dependent clauses like “In no way,”
or “Can’t be done.”

Before, when it could be done
it was “not the right time.”
People are dying, denied succor
because they are poor.

I’m waiting for some thunder
from someone who starts out:
“It can be done,” or “We have the will.”
Where there is will there is way.

Easy for me to say. Each must lead the way
like Cato the Elder of Rome in its hay day.
It fell shorty thereafter; all dynasties pass away.


Kim Doyle says: "A little more fire and brimstone from the currrent administration may be called for. And let's get Dick Cheney in Federal Prison; I volunteer to strip search him."
___________________________________________