All hail the new President, Joe Biden has become number forty six!

And the cycle continues – the American four year itch.

Be careful what you wish for, Joe, you’ve inherited a mess

After a disastrous term of confusion, ranting and largesse.

For the previous leader of the free world has been too distracted of late

Focussing on himself, his isms, focussing on his trials and his fate.

Leadership has been in absentia, so you’ll have to strive with utmost zeal

To restore the reputation of the Oval Office and the Presidential Seal.

The United States has always prided itself on promoting democracy

The prime enemy of dictators, of communism and theocracy

Yet the last few years have witnessed a woeful and shambolic hypocrisy

As an exhausted world has watched, agog, at a despotic autocracy.

The US voting system, has some responsibility, it has confounded and confused

With caucuses and electoral colleges, dimpled chads bemused

Misinformation reigned and Trump’s antagonistic bile

He poured petrol on the flames in his vitriolic style.

President Biden has lots to do – a weighty list to fix

Covid, gun crime, race relations, far right politics.

Nuclear treaties scuppered, broken promises, damaged foreign relations

China soon to overtake the US as the top economic nation.

Russian hacking, teenage hacking, Control-Alt-Delete

A never-ending flow of geeks for the CIA’s cybersecurity experts to defeat.

Obesity (but, D’oh!, please don’t fat shame), the mess of US healthcare

Ongoing environmental disaster, there’s an agenda of despair.

However, all is not lost, there are reasons to be cheerful

The United States is ebullient, the antithesis of fearful.

An entrepreneurial can-do attitude where no-nonsense breeds success

It is a melting pot for ideas and for creativity to impress.

They have mountains, coasts and prairies and infrastructure for survival

A land of plenty, a people of drive and a commerciality unrivalled.

So maybe the best for the globe’s strongest nation is yet to be unfurled

As Biden seeks to heal a divided America and, thus, to heal the world.

“Manners maketh man” so William Horman’s adage goes

A gentleman deploys decorum and selflessness, as everybody knows.

Yet in Washington DC the man in the White House has officially been found out

A decisive curb by social media firms tired of rant and scream and shout.

The President has been silenced, ironically, by his weapon of choice – Twitter

Trump’s been electronically muted, lost his prize transmitter.

To many, his choice of communication was always somewhat alarming

But the removal of such mechanisms are more than just disarming.

Our appetite for electronic communique is more and now and louder

With explanation marks, twists and jibes from the globe’s number one confounder.

For the leader of the western world has become addicted to these network tools

With tweets and posts in CAPITALS, to us, insatiable, device addicted fools.

Social media has its place for ideas and rallying speed

But it’s too blunt and coarse a medium for a man who’s there to lead.

True leadership requires example, inspiration and, above all, grace

To encourage, and to guide, to inspire and to embrace.

Not long ago our politicians communicated via interview with radio, TV and press

They set the tone, they shaped the story and were open to redress.

Today’s leaders are there to share lessons of the past and to shape our future glory;

They are a conduit for betterment, not to become the actual story.

So it seems sardonic that a President finds himself in this lamentable position

Now gagged and pandering to media firms – a source of contempt and pure derision.

Trump has allowed the mob to rule (and so Congress has moved to impeach)

Rather than to govern with kind authority with prose and pen and speech.