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Lifestyle
Victor Billot

An Ode for .. Toad of Seymour

David Seymour crumples up co-governance with his bare hands. Photo: Getty Images

Bard Billot on the contents of the Act leader's bulging box of half-baked candidates  

Captain Sensible

Toad of Seymour changes into his superhero uniform.

He pulls on his cape and magenta underpants.

Captain Sensible is here to save the day!

He swoops on some red tape and cuts it up

With a giant pair of deregulating scissors.

He crumples up some co-governance with his bare hands

And tosses it into a strictly monolingual rubbish bin.

He accelerates an elephant-sized magenta monster truck

Down a seventeen lane motorway in a black cloud of emissions.

He snatches some taxpayer owned weetbix

Back from an entitled youthful bottom feeder.

The middle of the road crowd applaud and whistle

At the common sense of Captain Sensible.

But the Captain is standing on a large magenta box.

There is a bumping and a muffled cacophony

As the gift wrapped box begins to bulge at the seams.

From within the box comes the sound

Of terrifying ranting and raving. The crowd grows restless.

“What’s in the box, Captain Sensible?”

Shouts a troublemaking state subsidised media hack.

“Just a few of my candidates,” assures the Captain nonchalantly

As he stamps down on the lid.

The bumping and crazed quacking and moaning

Coming from the box grow louder yet.

“Can we see some of them?”

Demands the troublemaking state subsidised media hack.

“Certainly,” says Captain Sensible,

Keeping a firm grasp on the lid of his bouncing magenta box

Of mainstream, unthreatening, common sense candidates.

“Maybe after the election.”  

Victor Billot has previously felt moved to write Odes for such luminaries as Nicola Willis, Michael Wood,  Chris Hipkins, and Christopher Luxon.

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