I wrote this in the Eighties after reading Browning and Newsweek in one sitting.
that Ollie North will get away
without a catch – indeed, with pay –
for all the crimes he swore he’d done.
How can it be his case is won?
“Because,” says Mr. Sullivan,
his lawyer extra-ordinaire,
“It’s simply that we couldn’t dare
expose such secrets to the air
as might allow our nation harm
and so, we must avoid alarm
by curtailing the law’s long arm.”
And here he abandons the gentle
smile he wears, so warm, so dental
for an aspect more parental:
“On this point I’ll brook no denial:
the case must never come to trial.”
And so the government will file
one last report on this affair
in offices secluded, where
yet one more opportunist snake
may be seen securing his stake –
no matter ethics, what’s the take?
Another man shamelessly on the make.
Envoi.
How long will stodgy bureaucrats
(resplendent in their ermine cloaks
afforded by us common folks)
refuse to rid us of the rats?
We need a Piper, or some cats-
