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All power corrupts?  Yes, but it’s fun
and I for one
enjoy the fix –
it’s got more kicks
than booze or drugs.  Forget homespun
platitudes, shun
dull country hicks
and slick sceptics
who never dared and never won –
reach for the sun.
Learn/turn the tricks;
hit out for six.

All power corrupts?  I suppose so.
Anyway, no  
one who succeeds
avoids misdeeds
of some kind or another, though
this too I know –
that what misleads
most are those greeds
for more than status, more than dough,
the sort which sow
the poisoned seeds
of ideal creeds.

All power corrupts – in politics
that’s why the pricks
who head the show
are touch and go
when measured against truth’s yardsticks.
Once that fact clicks
exclaim chapeau! –
black/white’s de trop
except for saints and heretics:
in life’s grey mix
dogma has no
portfolio.

All power corrupts – but face it, weeds
and young Candides
(whose looks may stun)
don’t get things done.
It’s quite clear what the nation needs:
a rogue who leads,
who grasps action
can mean the gun.
So in its prayers the wise race pleads
for those top breeds
whose tainted run
saves everyone.

Of course, you claim you changed the rules,
but we’re not fools:
your sacrifice
did not suffice –
we're wowed by shits and Widmerpools,
not Sunday schools.
Admit it, vice
was your device
to make us more than mere footstools –
with Satan’s drools
you put the spice
in Paradise.

Tom Vaughan

If you have any thoughts on this poem, Tom Vaughan  would be pleased to hear them.