In a world where unprotected justice is just another manipulative tool
those who believe in blind justice look increasingly like naive fools

where chaos replaces transparency with the purpose of obscuring truth
evidence based learning falls from aspiration, to work fragmented and moot

when lies are an accepted part of political discussion for misuse
the power lies with those who societal values they readily abuse

if public denigration of dissent is a routine weapon of discourse
then know ye that they will come for you too by threat as well as force

if wealth and appearance are the only currency around
the majority may well end up in position genuflecting from the ground

if deceit tricks and hacks are permitted to taint the heart of democracy 
then notional democracy becomes yet another self defeating fallacy
and the corrupt, malign and unread will rule over every land
empowered by the inevitable sycophants and their militarised bully bands

The poetics prompt for we dVerse poets https://dversepoets.com/2025/08/12/dverse-poetics-tuesday-power/ comes from the deep thinking Lisa this week. It is topical, omnipresent and scary – as it has been throughout history. Is it worse today than in past eras? I am not sure I can make an absolute statement about that. However, with the likes of social media and AI now available as part of the dissembling and propaganda mix I suspect it is to become so.

I cannot resist a more personal comment about two principled men from Australia’s political history who I believe represented the antithesis to the forms of abuse of power described in my poem above. Two men whose democratic modelling, and leading of social justice and cultural reforms could be learned from by many leadership figures engaged in the power plays of today. My father Race Mathews with his friend, colleague & mentor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.