Rhetoric Clap
They told us to stand on the doorstep and clap
wring our hands, shake our heads sincerely –
for the health service we hold so dearly
so the blusterer looks like a decent chap
with rhetorical skills he has used to entrap
with the language of battle and victory,
so the masses don’t notice the irony
and when it all falls apart, they’ll be
blaming victims, in barefaced hypocrisy.
Eithne Cullen