Topical Acrostic Sonnets

  The Pinch Of Salt

  The Salt Path was restorative for Winn.
  Her royalties, it is alleged, repaid
  Embezzled funds. Yet nature's medicine
 (Perambulations Moth and Raynor made
  In Cornwall on its cliffs), according to
  New claims, were too restorative to be
  Considered true: in many medics' view,
  He's been too well too long for CBD.
  Observer scoops don't often tell a lie.
  Fresh readings bring up doubts you can't ignore
  So easily, yet millions passed them by ...
  At picnics on the beach, with Salt Path for
  Light reading, why did no one spot a fault?
  They probably forgot their pinch of salt!

  (First published in Light on 14th July, 2025 as
  one of the Poems of the Week. Story here)
 Three-Month Rule

 The rule is clear: a minister whose gig
 Has ceased should wait at least three months before
 Receiving—from the right-wing press—a big
 Emolument for words. Three months or more
 Elapsing was no sweat for Boris J:
 Month meant a day for Telegraph largesse,
 Or just ten mins when Daily Mail could pay.
 Narrating tales of others who'd transgress
 The three-month rule, a watchdog chair said they
 Had been befuddled, even though they too
 Ran government (in constant disarray)
 Until they left ... I'd craft the rule anew:
 Let three months be when ministers can get
 Ejected if not unbefuddled yet!

 (First published in Light on 28st July, 2025 as
  one of the Poems of the Week. Story here)
 Abortifacience

 Abortifacience is a word you may
 Be unaware of: it's the use of meds
 Or other agents to abort. Today
 Republicans—who are at loggerheads
 This week with global charities about
 Incinerating contraceptive aid
 For Senegal—have used the word without
 Awareness of its meaning: what's unmade
 Can not abort. The condom, coil or pill
 Is saving lives, not ending them. The stocks
 Expire not soon. America pays nil—
 Not one red cent—to ship them to the docks ...
 Can you explain why they'd be set alight—
 Excepting that the reason is pure spite?

 (First published in the New Verse News on 1st
  August, 2025. Story here)



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