Poor Richard : Poor Richard : 2


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Poor Richard 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 dear kanga 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 Leave Report Sabbatical • Departure • Arrival • Elgin Crescent • A Shot of the British Museum • At the Victoria and Albert • The Book of Kells • At Kew • Through Pisa • Return to Iffley • Mordros Source: Poor Richard: Poems. Wellington: Port Nicholson Press, 1982 Electronic source: Poor Richard: a TEI-conformant transcription All poems © W. H. Oliver	2 A big belly and a thick neck: so Superintendent Rolleston the people's William sulking on the opposition benches set out his formula for political survival. Ample enough himself he was still a loser and found his consolation in good breeding intellectual pursuits and a fastidious habit of mind, qualities Richard lacked greatly to his advantage. He had gifts to spare: bull voice expansive gesture jutting beard broad hands splayed over the thighs great arse straining tight striped trousers; clown's face bewildered at the world's iniquities; incredulous innocence; obscene ill-temper: and something else less easy to pin down: compassion is it?