That Was the MUSE That Was

Pyongyang Pampering Regime Makeover Bid


(instigated by Ri Sol-ju and Kim Yo-jong)


 Kim Jong Un must have fun

it's beauty regime time

an eyebrow trim a dermal skim

Dear Leader's in his prime.


Creams and soap help him cope

we'll work upon his weight -

a new hairstyle, the current's vile

and mocked by heads of state.


Kim's lost shine, it is a sign,

DPRK needs frills -

some blame Trump, the stupid lump,

the cause of Kim Jong's ills.


Dearest Un the day is come

for pampering after tea

it's eyemasks on binoculars gone

a break from DMZ.


© S.O. Fasrus

From missiles to moisturiser: Kim Jong-un visits North Korean cosmetics factory

S.O. Fasrus: Social Justice Campaigner & Social Research Interviewer. Her verse and poems; some comic; satirical; and serious; can be found online. Recent poems are in New Verse News, Culture Matters, and Poems for Grenfell Tower.


TRUMPed-up

no other way
I will stay back
a day later
we will decide
let him know no hurry from our side

let's be clever
I'd never want
forever to lose
this golden chance
we must uphold our emboldened stance

to our dismay
plan goes haywire
our wayward faith
betrays and yet
we are supposed to play life's roulette

© SK Iyer

Trump cancels US-North Korea summit with Kim Jong-un

SK Iyer is a commerce graduate, leading a retired but busy life in Pune, India. His poems have been published. He is a member of PK Poetry List, UK. 

fasting starvation

in his mother's arms the boy said ta-ta
to starvation, now lays on the mud floor
his dead eyes blindfolded with a coloured cloth
ready to be buried alongside a crowd
of small mounds of clay where dead children lie

she keeps her son's death a secret so as
not to loose his portion of ration too
to enable feeding his twin sisters, whose
scared eyes witness the life's ghastly drama
unaware of what is in store for them

© SK Iyer

I hid my dead baby so that I could keep food for his twin
Editor's note: This isn't the first poem we've published, associated with this particular story, but such is the gravity of the situation in the Horn of Africa, we make no apologies.
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SK Iyer is a commerce graduate, leading a retired but busy life in Pune, India. His poems have been published. He is a member of PK Poetry List, UK.