The Friday Poem: ‘The Hierarchy’ by Victor Billot
New verse by Dunedin writer Victor Billot.
The Hierarchy
Invisible homeless
The dead
Care worker
Solo mother (bad suburb)
Loan shark
Bottom feeder
Dolt
Poet
Casual employee
PhD in Fine Arts
Intern
Experimental rodent
Minion
Serf
Serf (creative industries)
Mid-career journalist
Ten years to go and holding on desperately
“Between jobs”
Climate scientist
Aspirational 30-something National voter
Embittered bureaucrat
Petty officer
Solo mother (good suburb)
Will never afford a house but still think they have a chance
Dull but stable
Chief Executive of twelve people
Tobacco lobbyist
Bishop (Destiny Church)
Interior designer
“P” dealer
Change management consultant
Grand Poobah
Dairy farmer, backbone of the nation
“Entrepreneur”
All Black
Admiral of the Whole Damn Fleet
God
Been on Married at First Sight
Veitchy
Ex Merrill Lynch currency manipulators
Reprinted with permission from the latest Minarets Issue 8 journal of creative writing, edited by Erena Shingade (Compound Press,$15). and available at Unity Books.
Victor Billot
Victor Billot has published three poetry collections, most recently Ambient Terror (2017). He is a former socialist Parliamentary candidate, one-time editor of the Maritime Union magazine, a member of the beat group Alpha Plan, and collaborator with jazz pianist Bill Martin. He currently works for Otago University Press. Victor was born in Dunedin in 1972.
