Politician's Medicine                                           


            How often have we heard
            That the responsibilities of State
            Invariably tie a good man’s hands
            And force him to forego
            The very principles he’s staked his reputation on . . .
 
            Luckily for him the gravity conferred
            By shouldering such burdens for the common weal
            At such great moral cost
            May take the sting out of
            Self-sacrifice
 
            But to anaesthetise the pain incurred
            The most effective remedy is
            Cash


            ________________________________________________________________________


            Emanuel E. García, The Virtues of Calamity, One Hundred Poems2013