You know how you're down and out
on the river, three sheets to the wind,
doing some night casting, a little
moonlighting to pay off the bill,
and you decide, by god I'm tired
of drifting, I think I'll anchor here.

Me, I'm living on beer, boiled eggs,
and ruined mascara. Tonight,
I'll make enough to buy a roll of dimes
so she can play the box, so she can drop
them in the sawdust, on purpose
and lean over, oh me, oh my.

"...a black woman
in a white house
built by slaves..."

Biden come and goeth now , quickly doth he run
Whilst wielding compulsions deadly smoking gun,
Coercing this allies need to restate
Defiance to China’s political take
Of tactical ****** in the South China Sea
And belligerence spat…. when we all disagree.

Like meat in the sandwich we twitch and we squirm
When thrown on the spot like an early bird’s worm,
Risking primary markets of pine tree and milk
Midst Asia’s burgeoning tourism’s ilk?
Kiwifruit’s sales meeting China’s demand….
Risk all this ….for America’s leveraged command?

Do we sit on the fence in a balancing act?
Or throw caution to wind, redress or retract?
Do we hang like the Swiss in neutralities’ air
Attracting contempt…. as both parties stare?
With superpower leverage approaching white heat
The decision demands that we’re quick on our feet!

A questionable pleasure to dwell in this spot
When the wrong moves consequence, clearly has got,
Too disastrous an outcome for Kiwis to call
Should China’s great markets vanish and fall?
Or the Western Big Brother’s umbrella withdraw
Leaving us, militarily, adrift once more?

Strong armed tactics, they both brandish here,
The quandary posed is starkly clear….
Shall we tip toe through the tulips, soft,
Or tell them all to.... GO GET LOST?*

M.
23 July 2016
Auckland N.Z.

Everything is asleep
and in pain, in love
and dreaming
about another life
I say to myself,
it is time I take my own
lookout, unfaithful
sailors know they can't
see a thing but they keep
their place on the prow
out there in the darkness
where boats are colliding,
oh yes, they are blind
or awake feeling the dark
like light, like those levels
of cold and heat underwater,
you know what I mean,
when you are dreaming
or in danger, that place
where fish live and sleep,
sometimes I think I understand
everything,  but I know that
I am wrong, and incredible
as it seems, the shadow I see
when I'm hung, I want to think
of hideouts in the mountains
where a man can go to die there.