[John Whitworth]

The splendid Hugo Williams has accepted My Father's Ghost for the Spectator. It was workshopped here and I think Ann and possibly some others persuaded me to make some changes. Oh, And Jayne found the poem for me, which I had lost. Thank you all round. The poem can be found here is you look for it. Actually Aaron the Pooch did most of the textual work. Thanks a bunch.

I'll quote the poem here if that is permitted. Jayne, is it? I think I asked you this before and you said Yes.

[Jayne Osborn]

I'll quote the poem here if that is permitted. Jayne, is it? I think I asked you this before and you said Yes.

"The Accomplished Members" board is the bragging station here, John, so brag away! Let's see the poem

...And huge congratulations for another Spectator publication.

Jayne

[Aaron Poochigian]

Congrats, John. I remember that poem well.

Best,

Pooch the Gooch

[John Whitworth]

Thank you Pooch and thank you Jayne. Makes up for all those back halfs Bazza stole from me. Hereit is:

My Father’s Ghost
My Father’s ghost was wont to walk
With Captain Ill and Marshal Stalk,
And oftentimes upon the Moor
I’d come upon the ghostly spoor
That marked the stately rigadoon
They measured out beneath the moon.
Such spectres, ghastly, gaunt and grim,
Could rend a peasant limb from limb
And crunch the bones of girls and boys
Who so had lost their equipoise
They stayed out playing after dark,
Till dawn discovered, stiff and stark,
The children who, in Mum’s despite,
Go gallivanting through the night.
It serves the little bastards right.

[Aaron Poochigian]

Donald Trump was wont to party
with Kim Jong Un and Rod Duterte. . .

[John Isbell]

... and Putin was a friend of his.
To rule like him - that would be bliss!,
he dreamed. To launch my enemies
from fourth-floor windows, that would please
my inner child immensely! Trump
could only dream. And what a dump
the White House was! The constitution
was not the boss of him. The news and
the Washington establishment
all wished him ill, and to repent
was not his bag. What could he do
but pander to his base anew?