Two Poems

Nigerian Scammers

Nigerian scammers write bad, IN ALL CAPS,
Misspelling, losing credibility
With all except the stupidest of saps;
No fools themselves, it’s done deliberately.

No point in wasting time on those who doubt –
Everyone who responds is a clear fool:
Desperate to believe, they throw sense out –
Greedily they send cash, earn ridicule.

So @RealDonaldTrump tells barefaced lies
Unfazed by print or film-based evidence;
And fools give cash and votes as hypnotised,
Entrust the trickster with their confidence.

“Born of a virgin! Raised up from the dead!”
Faiths, too, tell huge lies – and religions spread.



The Uprooted

A man and a woman were brought from the New Guinea mountains
Into New York, to make a new life for themselves, but they brought
No useable tradition, except that “dead souls live in great trees”.
But here - so many people - and barely a tree large or small.
Their children now had to define their own lives for themselves;
They’d no sense of community, heritage, responsible care.
They fought to make sense of their lives in what ways they could:
Their choices were drugs and despair, or learn ruthless street smarts.

So illiterate camel-herders, who worship a pre-modern Book,
A century ago started building cities of concrete and sand,
Sudden petro-billionaire rulers of millions of lives.
Make Palaces gorgeous, leave cities without pavements or parks,
The smart suck the oil wealth, all others can rot. They all lack
Traditions of ruling and caring and building a state.

Robin Helweg-Larsen

If you have any comments on these poems, Robin Helweg-Larsen  would be pleased to hear from you.