The Secretary-General at Midnight

Subscribe to this site on Substack

Subscribe to this site on YouTube

Subscribe to this site on Medium

Follow this site on Facebook

Follow this site on Instagram

Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.

Audio and Video Music:
Mysterious Sorrows.
By Aakash Gandhi.
Music free to use
at YouTube.

Alpha List

Political
Poems

About This
Site

Poems for
Free

Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

The Secretary-General at midnight
Having spent a long day on his knees:
Even as the Earth twirls towards twilight,
Sovereign states do ever as they please,
Each doomed along with all, as none foresees.
Challenged, the one nation that must lead
Reiterates its reasons to refuse,
Even as the barracuda breed,
Threatening a game that all must lose,
A chance no gambler, crazed or drunk, would choose.
Restricted to the power of persuasion,
Yielding, naturally, but scant success;
Given but the stature of his station,
Eliciting fine words to please the press;
Near desperate, he starts slowly to undress.
Elevate your legs, he thinks, and then
Reclines as usual, and then again
Alights, and feels the Earth beneath him spin,
Longing more and more for less and less.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.

Audio and Video Music: Mysterious Sorrows.
By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

[about this site] [poems for free] [poem of the week]
[site policy] [about me] [links]