Rhetoric Clap

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