O AMANDA

O AMANDA

Oh Amanda,
I have you
in twenty
twenty hindsight

gone
totally
retrospective

just to
see
just how
badly you
recited us

how much not
just off key
off track
but mistaking
the climate

leading us off
in the wrong
direction

not climbing
the hill but
on death
descent down
the mountain

you there inspiring us
with hope, false hope
stuff
   of bad ideology

in your sun yellow dress
beautifully assured

and
    battling down
those slopes it was
all ice,
  all winter, death
by exclusion, excision,
by  bullets
through
the side
window at
point blank range

and the house
on the hilk with
its shining city
hoisting
   an old hated, feared flag,
as bulldozers knock
down
  and everything gets
restructured

need space for
the ritz whilst
homeless
go hungry

ghouls at the ball, macabre
how much space
they need
      to dance and
twirl
and plot human structure

should have been
severe on yourself before
flaunting your
skills
before us
Miss Gorman,
should have checked
your subtext for
masquerade

and so
why should we climb
that hill
   since we can buy one
elsewhere
greener, cheaper

take one out there
for ourselves
     we write good poetry,
exceptional lines really
that
   nothing
can compare with

the sun setting on that hill,
your hill

suddenly
    I smell abyss
and feel the slippery slide