two flowers
1 Her excellency the High Commissioner
picked dandelions for her silver vase
not knowing they were only weeds
knowing only they were strong, slender. sun-golden.
We sneered

2 in the black muzzle of my Mauser
she planted her red rose
saying "peace, peace"
Nor knowing my gun is my manhood
knowing only her soft superficial certainties.
I shot her

(inspired by two newsitems. the first after the first Indian high commissioner had arrived, the second on a university campus in USA in 1968}