The prompt here was a poem with overheard speech in it.
Sonnet again. It is my default setting when I do a form.
Interestingly I have known people like this, not diplomats, but who use rudeness as a form of affection, and who even use it to test new acquaintances — if anyone takes offence: well you don't want the effort of people that difficult anyway...
So, I said
So I said: you are a diplomat, are you?
Because I had by chance happened to hear
him call the Finish Attaché a weird-
arsed hybrid of a reindeer and a shrew
and he said: I'll tell you, since we have a while.
My brand of statecraft is my very own
and amongst the cognoscenti I'm well known
for slandering my best friends with a smile
and I can never change because all like
me how I am. I can't be too correct,
except... just sometimes when I want to crack
their composure, well then I need to go icily
polite -- never fails. I know he'll be a chum
'cos as he went he said I was plain dumb.
Brilliant!
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