The News In Poetry Day 92: Double Helix, Inc.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/13/supreme-court-genes-patent-dna

My DNA(tm) is quite unique
But I don’t own the patent. Even so.
I’m pirating the data as we speak!

I think I’ve always had a rebel streak:
I’m always replicating: did you know?
My DNA(tm) is quite unique.

I’m frightened of the havoc you could wreak
With rights to all my chromosomes, and so
I’m pirating the data as we speak!

A lengthy prison sentence you could seek
But my equipment goes where I will go
My DNA(tm) is quite unique.

The future that you have planned out is bleak:
Will we submit to copyrighting? NO!
I’m pirating the data as we speak!

But SCOTUS ruled your arguments were weak:
You cannot own this information flow:
My DNA(tm) is quite unique:
I’m pirating the data as we speak!

The News In Poetry Day 91: Teacher Training Essay

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10115660/Schoolgirl-abducted-to-France-tells-court-of-first-kiss-with-teacher-Jeremy-Forrest.html

When a fourteen year old schoolgirl,
All alone with you
Smiles, leans forward
Parts freshly glossed lips
And breathes “I really want to”…

As her teacher, Mr Forrest,
What is it you should do?
Who, in this situation, do we blame?
Use both sides of the paper,
And, if you have one still,
A sense of shame.

The News In Poetry Day Ninety: A Promenade In Gezi Park

Well, this went to a place I wasn’t expecting.
Warning: I think it could be triggering from a coercive sex point of view, which I didn’t see till I’d written it!
I guess the prime minister of turkey creeps me out more than I realized.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22859959

I send you all my love
From canons, and in cans of poison gas
My affection will bring tears to your eyes.
It will hang upon your neck
Leave angry welts.
I will not kneel before you.
I stand firm
And my caressing hand
Upon your head
Forces you down
I said that we would talk
That you’d be safe
But I have love to give you:
Do as you are told.

The News In Poetry Day 88; Mandela

This is horribly late because i fell asleep at 8pm last night., half way through writing it.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12305154

He’s an old man now:
Ninety four: no one could say
He’s in his prime.
He has no fear of death
And yet
We cannot quite accept
It might be time.
And should he even live
To see a century
His life will be too short
By twenty seven years.

The News In Poetry Day 87: Gun Control

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22823290

You do not need these guns
They do not keep you safe.
Instead, they keep you scared.
As long as you are scared
You’ll listen to the ones
Who want to sell you guns.
Now listen for the shots
In colleges and schools.
The gun inside your house
Can’t keep your children safe.
Perhaps it will be your
Confused and angry child
Who pulls the trigger next.
It’s out of your control.

The News In Poetry Day 86: Fair Game

http://gawker.com/texas-says-its-ok-to-shoot-an-escort-if-she-wont-have-511636423

It’s not a fair game
When she’s fair game
Because she’s on the game.
If you dare shame
Those girls who play a fair game
Not in their name,
Do you pretend to care, came
On your white chargers to save damsels who were never in distress
And when they refused to be
Your ever grateful princesses,
Took pride in their work
With its perks and its stresses
Then they were fair game
They should bear blame
If their game
Ends in death.
She wasn’t fair game
For murder, injustice and hate
You can call her a whore
But her life was worth so much more
Than her hourly rate.

The News In Poetry Day 85: Calamity Kate

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/10100935/Three-babies-by-three-fathers-will-it-be-third-time-lucky-for-Calamity-Kate-Winslet.html

We expect her to get married,
Not be left upon the shelf.
We expect her to have babies
For she’s worthless by herself.

But she can only have one lover;
She must grieve him, if he goes.
For she cannot be Kate Winslet
She’s expected to be Rose!

She can be a sweet old lady
She can be an ingénue
She can be a sexy starlet
And a wife and mother too

But if her kids have different fathers
Then she’s really off the rails
She’s no longer pure and feminine:
The great illusion fails

Now she’s married for a third time
And our narrative’s all twisted
Jack Walker would be weeping
If he ever had existed.

Oh we really want Kate Winslet
To be happy, heaven knows!
But we simply can’t forgive her
If she isn’t being Rose.

The News In Poetry Day 83: Eighteen Excuses

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/06/18-arguments-made-against-gay-marriage-house-lords
The meaning of marriage would waver and change
We’d find it confusing and awkward and strange.
Those who oppose would be under arrest
And women would somehow be further oppressed
They’ll ask for polygamy next, you will find,
And the poor silly darlings don’t know their own minds,
Marriage only exists for a her and a him,
The prime minister’s doing all this on a whim.
We all know that lesbians don’t really do it,
And most of the homos are not that into it.
Some homophobes’ feelings have really been hurt.
And we have to stop now if a backlash we’d skirt.
Some of the phrasing’s a bit convoluted
The monarchy could be, in theory, polluted
Registrars who object may well find themselves sacked
And by doctors this isn’t, in every case, backed
They are separate but equal. Is that not enough?
Some people don’t like it. On them, this is tough.

The Lords think equal marriage is very complex
In fact it’s quite simple: they’re scared of gay sex.