Socialist Sonnet No. 185

Appeasement

 

There’s insistence amongst political

Gangsters that only bellicosity

Can deter a rival’s ferocity;

Be a serpent, not a worm that turns tail,

With the inevitable consequence,

Of aggressors taking encouragement

From any expressed pacific intent.

Munich’s often cited, with an implied sense

It is moral turpitude and weakness

To insist war is a terrible waste,

While any real peace can only be based

On martialled military means to impress.

Alternatives, however realistic,

Tend to send politicians ballistic.

 

D. A.