Nigel Barrage

A balloon of limp form and bluster
A container of lighter than air
With an attack that drowns out any opposition
So no one can hear the counter viewpoint clear

You shout out we must deliver The Peoples Brexit
Your chant, your mantra, your artillery strike
But you still happily take home your Euros
And your children can all ride German bikes

And while we have to sever all our euro-ties
to sail off into a slack free market lagoon
you voted to keep your European pension
to keep feeding hot air into your balloon

Your policies are all soundbites and anger
Your strategy is just to 'get out of there'
While your hedge fund friends make money from instability
About real people, the impact, you don't care

You've lined your pocket at the table
One where you complain that its obviously European made
But you still happily take home jolly foreigners doggy bag
Knowing delivereuro will keep paying your pension wage

© Andrew Minhinnick

BBC Question Time: ‘Nigel, just answer the question’ Farage silenced by furious audience member over trade deal blunder

Andrew Minhinnick

Andrew is a fifty year old, unpublished scribbler. Work prevents him from dedicating as much time as he would like, to his writing. Nevertheless, he tries to pen something every day. His four unfinished novels and hundreds of poems tell the tale.

The Brexit Child

are we there yet
have we left yet
We haven't left the house dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just deciding what to take dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just planning the route dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just packing what they asked us to bring dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just checking the tyres on the car dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just checking all the doors and windows are locked dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just going to put you in the car now dear
are we there yet
have we left yet
We're just starting the motor,
but there are traffic jams ahead dear

© Andrew Minhinnick

Brexit: Downing Street 'ready to meet Labour this weekend'

Andrew Minhinnick

Andrew is a fifty year old, unpublished scribbler. Work prevents him from dedicating as much time as he would like, to his writing. Nevertheless, he tries to pen something every day. His four unfinished novels and hundreds of poems tell the tale.

Demigogarism

He may not be viewed as a force for good

but the man in the white house is simply misunderstood

or at least the reactions, to all that he does

should be seen as positive, think about it, if you would

while republicans are silent, burying their heads in hands

and their supporters examine navels, where's the line in the sand?

the democrats have started to get off of the fence

and minorities are discovering, their voice is existent

so every tweet he makes, each wave of his hands

his attacks on small countries, they're all spiteful stands

the response, the double take, the he-didn't, did he?

is making us all examine, what we each do each day

now people all around are starting to talk today

the Korea's are Winter Olympicking, he caused this I say

they realise there's a bigger danger to the status quo now

in place from the 50's, to today, let's talk, some how!

as America recants all of Obama's balanced deeds,

Trumpy is shredding them to the bone 'til they bleed

environmental protection, goodwill gestures and world wide pacts

are spitefully stopped, cut down, dead in their tracks

its not that they were bad but they were already in place

put there by someone Trump knows is a better person, with better grace

so every item and act he can find will with glee be erased

gleefully unpicked, that's narcissism, he must know his place!

and western leaders paddle in the soup of home made cold broth

spouting empty rhetoric and meaninglessness froth

so social media carries all the meaningful anger and public thrust

will civilisation survive, or is it near to being bust?

So the world looks for change as China sails on a fifty year cruise

lots of eyes start to look eastward, for leadership they can use

and they stop looking to westward, as for so long they did

hoping now the orange glow is a complexion, not the burning of the id

but here and there is a shred of just seen light

where people have moved away from demigodarism, as a right!

little actions are happening that may help improve the world

will Trumpy last for ever, no, he's a speck on a turd

but the turd has forced lots of stances to be carefully reviewed

arguments to be settled and maybe the end of a feud

some enemies look at each other and say he's madder over there

lets go have a coffee, watch twitter, laugh, and not care!

© Andrew Minhinnick

Winter Olympics 2018: North Korea will send 22 athletes to Pyeongchang

Andrew Minhinnick is a fifty year old, unpublished scribbler. Work prevents him from dedicating as much time as he would like, to his writing. Nevertheless, he tries to pen something every day. His four unfinished novels and hundreds of poems tell the tale.

Plastic, plastic, everywhere

Seafood Starter

When you pressed start,

the washing machine began tumbling

synthetic microfibres out of your polyester

microplastics too tiny for the filter,

too insignificant for sifting

by the water treatment plant.

They drifted down-river to the ocean

where the langoustine ate them

and they lodged inside.

Your shrimp’s stomach is removed

from your seafood starter, but the shellfish

conceals from your partner its plastic surprise.

© Sue Norton

Are seafood lovers really eating 11,000 bits of plastic per year?

Sue Norton has had poems published in various magazines. She was a prizewinner in the 2017 Rialto/RSPB Nature Poetry competition.



Plastic Sea

In a thousand years time, when we are all dead
and all of our offspring have been laid gently in bed,

what will a visitor, who had bumped into Voyager see?
they had wanted to listen, to a creature called Chuck Berry.
will the seas be a soup, of plastic slime and oil?
will the rainforests clingon, or will it be desert mile on mile?
will the gardens of Europe be a flood plain of ice-less sea?
is Greenland now a beach resort, glacier and tundra free?
will we still stand, having survived our man made end
or will all be ruled by insects and jellyfish men?

and as they look around at all we have left,
the shells of buildings, rail and road intersects,
will they wonder the how, or the why, or even the what
or just carry on looking for a Chuck Berry CD box set?

© Andrew Minhinnick

193 nations sign pledge to tackle 'global crisis' of plastic in the oceans

Andrew Minhinnick is a fifty year old, unpublished scribbler. Work prevents him from dedicating as much time as he would like, to his writing. Nevertheless, he tries to pen something every day. His four unfinished novels and hundreds of poems tell the tale.