State Of The Nation - Eamonn Stewart

State of The Nation.


Mark Twain swears that he once saw some men fuelling

The furnace of a riverboat with Egyptian mummies.



The furnace stoked with mummies

And the paddle-wheel turns.

The gamblers read the entrails of their cards:

The Achilles Paradox trumps venal concerns.

The tortoise *isn't *caught in Uncle Sam's backyard.



Air strike diplomats, keepers of the sacred flame:

Quench the brand of sedition, quench the brand of tradition.

A cord of mummies for the Ship of State –

And a surgical strike on Mark Twain !



Eamonn Stewart.

Born in Belfast 1964. Trained as an advertising photographer and worked as a focus-puller. Various poems published in magazines. Many influential enemies.