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An American Explains (to a Curious Brit)
On politics here—well, it twists and it bends,
Confusing beginnings with stranger dead-ends.
I’m mostly apolitical, shrugging, you see,
I listen to all—or to none—let me be.
The media swirls like a tempest gone wild,
Each outlet insists it has truth undefiled.
Two mighty narratives fight for the crown,
While dozens of others just muddle around.
Three kinds of people, at least, so I claim:
One swears by one story and plays the one game;
One listens to many and weighs what they hear;
And one simply yawns, says “I’ll buy you a beer.”
But no one’s “taken the cities,” dear friend.
We’ve three hundred million with lives to attend.
While D.C. is noisy, a capital show,
It isn’t the country—you ought to know!
Yes, clashings and crime make the headlines look grim,
But most daily lives carry on, neat and trim.
So worry not, Briton, the storm’s mostly air—
We muddle along, as they do everywhere.
And if you find Washington terribly odd,
Remember we beat you, and wield a big rod.
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Scharlie Meeuws, a poet born in Germany, began writing at a young age. She studied in Spain and France, writing poems in Spanish and French before settling in England, where she co-owns Thorntons Bookshop, the oldest in Oxford. Scharlie’s poetry has been featured in magazines and anthologies, including the Guardian. Her work was recognized by Nobel Prize winner Vicente Aleixandre. Her most recent book is The Emotional Robot and Other Poems. Her poetry book Outbranching was published by Cerasus, London in 2021 and is available on Amazon.
Nicely done, Sharlie. Those three types of people hits the nail on the head. Unfortunately, if you’re in the ‘One listens to many, and weighs what they hear’, category, you end up with cannons to left of you and cannons to the right of you.
Not sure about the last line, though. After all, we did burn down the White House in 1812.
Thanks for an enlightening read.
As a Kiwi who lived in the States for 30+ years I think you’ve nailed it here and I agree with Paul Freeman that if you are in the middle it is ” cannons to left of you and cannons to the right of you.”
So we’re back in the middle again. This poem was so fun to read that I read it again, and again. Wherever Scharlie gets her stuff from is a place I’d like to shop. Someday she will tell us how her last name is pronounced.
Never mind how it’s pronounced CB: she is obviously a cat (for it’s a form of cat language) and the poem is very funny; and even more interesting is the fact that she run Thorntons in Oxford – Thorntons are a high class chocolate shop and Oxford is up the road from me. I usually go there for books, but I really must pop in sometime for the chocs!
A comment mocking and denigrating the author rather than engaging with the poem. Easy to do from behind a keyboard with the encouragement of one of the old lags. I expected more, but suppose it’s a sign of the times.
Haha, yes Thornton’s chocolates……no, think of Thornton’s Bookshop, world famous. Some films are being made showing it, like inspector Morse or Brideshead revisited….though we often received mail for Thorntons chocolates wrongly delivered— no chocolate boxes though….
My husband and I we run our shop for many years, a lovely time to think back to…..nowadays it is a hotel
Thank you for asking. My name is pronounced ME-US, not meow, that is what a cat says when trodden on its feet.
Bernard Levin once reviewed one of my husband’s books with the following sentence: “ why should a book of this quality be published by a man whose name sounds like a cat being trodden on” …..many people wrote complains to the paper in question but my husband sent a reassuring note to Levin telling him that in fact his review had produced a larger number of orders…
Thanks for this well written poem. I think that given the current state of the UK, we’re too engrossed by our own problems to be all that curious about the USA! But a good read nonetheless.