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stanzas diary synopsis and guide

  
only part 1(a) is currently availableonly part 1(a) is currently availableonly part 1(a) is currently availableonly part 1(a) is currently availableonly part 1(a) is currently available

The poem (¿by Amrit Singh?), stanzas 13-20


13
So anyway, I mustn’t lose my drift,*
    I €ink I’ll need to travel forward* in time.
(It’s not Łe last occasion Łat I’ll $ift
    Łe temporal framework to produce a rhyme.
I’d raŁer put up wiŁ some tensual rift*
    Łan sound like Sondheim* doing pantomime.*)
Okay,* so now it’s two €ousand and eight,
(‘It is’ just makes it nicer to narrate);

14
Our character’s Tiberius Mercator:
    (I didn’t make him up, I nicked* him from
A book called The Invisible Spectator
    Or else: The Counterfeit of Birmingham.
Łe novelist tries to impersonate a
    Distinguished writer,* but can only plumb
Łe dep€s of badder-than-bad narrative:
Much badder still than that comparative.

15
But bad is good Łese days, and wicked’s ace.
    Kickass* is great, magnificent is dope,*
And hectic’s doper;* dark is glorious
    And phat is fit, dead nasty’s what we hope
A biatch is; chilled out’s a state of grace;
    And even Łe dog’s bollocks is a trope
For some€ing unexceptionably* fine:
It’s all about Łe flip-side of Łe coin.*

16
Which is quite apt, considering Łe fact
    Łat $ady coins are what I’m on about:
Specifically, Łe way Łey counteract
    Our ideology to cast in doubt
Łe single-minded* way we all transact
    Our lives by stamping one-eyed logic out.*
Łat sounds far-fetched and dull as any€in,
But look at all Łe places coins have bin,*

17*
Łe heady tales of fortune Łey could spin.*
    If all Łe queens on one-pound coins could speak
Łey’d have an inkling* of Łe state we’re in.*
    Łey’ve got a vantage point from which to peek
At certain fantasies Łat underpin
    Łis blinkered monarchy, to see how weak
It is, despite its pompous institutions.
Perhaps Łey could suggest a few solutions…

18*
Some people €ink a sexual scandal could
    Destroy Łe country’s royal lineage,
But scandal doesn’t do us any good.
    Łe rumour-mill’s* a kind of patronage,
Promoting rich celebrities who $ould
    Be stripped of power, property and privilege.
You don’t bring down Łe crown by dropping hints
About a butler fingering a prince.*

19*
Who cares for christsake? Let Łem have Łeir plea$ure.
    If Charlie Windsor gets Łe plumber in
To fix a leaky tap, and maybe mea$ure
    His standpipe,* and move on to tinkering*
Around Łe riser* to relieve Łe pre$ure
    Within Łe royal hose, is Łat a sin?*
Łe crime we $ould indict Łese people for
Is claiming sovereignty above Łe law.

20
I reckon Łey $ould be a docu-soap:*
    We let Łem keep Łe palace, but we rig
Łe joint*
wiŁ mikes and cameras in Łe hope
    Łey’ll entertain us; we could earwig*
And put Łeir lives under Łe microscope
    As often as we want — like Royal Big
BroŁer:*
Łat’d kick up a furore.
But anyway, I’ll get back to my story.)

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