By Annie Shepherd for The Parisian Post.

Week ending 15 April: Tension reaching fever pitch as Sarkozy slips in the polls. All ten candidates give their pitches on screen, yet nothing seems tangible in their proposals. Sarkozy’s and Hollande’s rallies coincide with the Paris marathon; Turkey hosts an international meeting to discuss the Iran nuclear programme; North and South Sudan at loggerheads over oilfields, and the Taleban target foreign presence in Kabul.

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Too dispersed all these birds – bird lovers despair

as they strut their stuff with their beaks in the air.

Born-Again Mélenchon up to his pranks

magpie cackling ‘We’ll take over the banks!’

collecting his treasure from Left and from Right

flashing his feathers neon and white.

Angry duck Arthaud : “NO! NO! NO!”s

lagging behind quacking furious prose

while Dupont-Aignan the dickie bird

chirps ‘no lettuce, no rhubarb unless they are ours

EU product, no others,’  he glowers.

Oriole Chemineau smiles at the moon

and Sarko pro-Harki true to the crow

more strident, more ruffled against his foe.

‘No more money-walls!’ blackbird sings

suave through the crowds yet his song saccadé,

Poutou foutu and ganet Le Pen

sharpens her beak against all these men

and Joly greenfinch writes “I love you France”

as they prance and they dance through this marathon run

to 22 April and still all’s not done.

And who dares crow that taxes will rise

and foreign credits pay ministry sparrows

jobs, schools and debt – all taboo in the shadows

until the poll closes on 6th of May

when at last we can all call it a day.

Meanwhile Turkey jittery – Iran’s nuclear plans,

and quarrels in North and South Sudan

over oil fields and riches, the pattern continues

and Afghanistan, the fighting renewed,

and ceasefire in Syria: fiction.

copyright © 2012 Annie Shepherd all rights reserved

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>> Read Presidential campaign part 1 "Pecking Order"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 2 "On The Farm"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 3 "Run to Save your Bacon"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 4 "Stage Set"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 5 "Squabble"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 6 "tragedy"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 7 "slanging match"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 8 "Easter"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 9 "Aviary"
>> Read Presidential campaign part 9 "Migrations"
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