Hectoring Americans

-for Pamela Wallin

Senator, was that suggestion or an order,
“No moralizing aimed south of the border,
No fuss now when a friend acts bad
When paying; take the pay, be glad!
Best practice to befriend the global warder”?
Also, you’ve set the daily rate –
The price for us to shut up and be nice-
At ten twos times ten to the eight.
Big numbers tend to satiate.
How big (or small) then would suffice
To ethically attenuate?
Justice only if we can afford her.
I think I’ll sell mine at a different price.
Or not, since I was always taught
That rights and wrongs could not be bought;
That morally I oughtn’t be a debtor.
But here’s a thing the neighbours did do better:
(A low bar for the good, I would have thought)
But for bright lights and roving waterboarder,
But for a childhood fenced with bar and cot,
At least they’ve given Omar Khadr quarter,
Something your masters thought they’d rather not.