The Tyrant
By John Short
As a child he kept amphibians
netted in the gentle stream,
fed maggots, worms and spiders;
enjoyed that savage ritual.
Along the seaside promenade
he’d pester grandma for another coin
to watch the clockwork execution:
a model man led out by guards,
who dropped through a tiny trapdoor.
Later he amassed billions,
rose to power, eliminated rivals,
enslaved and stole resources.
He starts wars because
he can’t imagine life without them.
Takes whatever he decides,
bombs schools, hospitals, kindergartens
just to show them who to fear.
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John Short’s poems and stories have featured in over 70 publications worldwide, including Pennine Platform, South Bank Poetry, The High Window and Poetry Salzburg Review. His work mainly deals with past experiences and travels in Europe. He has a pamphlet, Unknown Territory: Poems about Greece (Black Light Engine Room 2020) and a collection, Those Ghosts (Beaten Track 2021). His new collection, In Search of a Subject (Cerasus Poetry) will appear in early 2023. He blogs sporadically at Tsarkoverse.