Changing of the Guard

 Changing of the Guard


Action Man taught me

that fascists wear the coolest clothes.

With his eagle-eye for fitted trench coats,

a sleek, peaked officer’s cap 

emblemed with a silver skull,

and a well-turned heel

on a jackboot,

he was the best-dressed baddie 

in the toy trunk.


Forty years on,

and I wonder what he’s wearing now?


(We all grow tired of war)


I imagine:

a smart blue suit,

a long, long red tie,

and his cap now fit for baseball

rather than the trenches.

(Hugo Boss would not be pleased)


He has traded his Mauser for a cell phone.

It still does the same thing.

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