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THE ALL - AMERICAN

Howard was an all - American

hands big enough to crush opinion,

retired now from being an actuary,

a sun around whom a penumbra of ladies

revolved while their husbands receded

in the heat of him.

 

He stumped up an adulation

for the Rolling Stones and

the follies of brexit.

His voice was Job on the hilltop

persuasive and unassailable.

 

Not quite ready for the fifteen hundred pounds

to see the Stones in Colorado

he fell back on older memories

of those colossuses of rock

eagerly recounted with expansive sweeps

talking almost of the living Christ and the disciples.

 

Under his snappy panama, he planted

his big face against the nimble Irish hostess

while his beer, forgotten was going slightly flat.

 

I regaled him with a waspish rumour

to engage his mind

but he buried me under a slurry of humour

Howard the hail fellow well met, and

he made me feel I was in his debt.

 

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Comments

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Stu Buck

Thu 8th Sep 2016 19:58

not the man himself, rather those who would vote for him

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raypool

Thu 8th Sep 2016 19:34

THanks Harry. I take your point, but fact can be stranger than fiction however appealing that may be to twist the story - This man was the ex - boss of all those women, hence the basking in their adulation. He would look good on the plains too. THanks for commenting.

I'm glad you read this Stu and thanks . I wonder if you were thinking of Trump. The signs could be there but I think our character is just a soft lump.

Ray

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Stu Buck

Thu 8th Sep 2016 15:04

a nice character study and quite topical as well.

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Harry O'Neill

Wed 7th Sep 2016 23:11

Ray,
What a wonderful metaphorically mighty and sexy character you`ve created in that first stanza...and kept up in the rest of it.

But - poetically - you`ve got to give him a better job than actuary (that guy never sat behind a desk)

(i like the humility of it also)



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