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Mainstream, VOL LVII No 23 New Delhi May 25, 2019

Fools in High Places (Dedicated to Polonius)

Sunday 26 May 2019, by Badri Raina

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When fools in high places make smart decisions,
Shaming those in the know,
Then clouds shed their toxic load,
And don a nationalist glow.

Not all fools are one and the same—
Some are fools indeed;
Others are touched by divine mystique,
And do not any sanity need.

The people must with trust elect
The latter kind of fool
To lead them through rain and shine
From a gut-level knowledge pool.

Governments are thus bypassed,
And experts made redundant;
Moneys saved from a fool’s say-so
Can go to the party fund.

Enlightened fools best supercede
Enlightened democracies;
Once voted in to lead the realm,
Leave them to rule with kingly ease.

Of course if some day their radar goes
Haywire among the clouds,
Prepare for a conflagration such
That no democracy may douse.

Until a newer fool appears
To wave his prophetic arm,
And quells dissenting sanities
Back into a presto charm.

The best kinds of military men are those
Who the divine fool obey
With implicit faith in the unreason
Of his mesmerising sway.

Badri Raina

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