It’s more than three years since I retired

But the time hasn’t been wasted;

Work was cut but new stuff pasted,

A third grandchild acquired,

I tried to learn Ancient Greek,

Took up the paintbrush again,

First oil paints since I don’t know when;

A bit of Torah study midweek

And generally, synagogue life;

Time with the partner still a pleasure:

A late and unexpected treasure,

Though, for me, no more being a wife.

Besides this, I’ve become addicted to the news.

I’m not happy about Brexit,

Or Marine Le Pen’s plans for Frexit,

Corbyn’s Labour, Trump’s weird views.

Not a Luddite, I blog and tweet,

Well, the blogs are poetry and bible,

But Twitter is such a fount of libel

Which, in real life one doesn’t often meet,

Of fake news before ‘fake news’ was a thing

And gross cartoons, displeasing memes,

Rage, loathing and political extremes,

Threats, photo shopped images, name-calling;

It angers me when they go for my heroes

Such as David Aaronovitch or JK Rowling,

So I want to respond to the trolling

By replying in kind to those zeros.

And I know Netanyahu’s trouble,

But not the murderous ghoul

Superimposed as a general rule

Over a photo of Gazan rubble.

I tweeted #JesuisCharlie, #JesuisEd,

The latter back in 2015

When the bacon sandwich photo was seen

And hopes of Labour winning put to bed.

I see a sinister use of stereotype.

Although I don’t like the expression ‘As a Jew,’

And I know this sort of thing is far from new,

As a Jew, it hurts to read such tripe.

Neonazis think the Talmud is satanic.

What can they have been reading?

The innocent people they’re misleading

React with well-meaning anti-zionist panic.

Well sometimes it’s all too much

And then I muscle in, with my 140 letters,

Get involved in Twitter vendettas

Until it’s time to kick them out of touch.

Being a worrier is how I roll,

But now I’ve become a warrior

For which I ought to be sorrier

As I don’t want to behave like a troll;

I thought Twitter would be an exchange

Of culture, pictures, good advice,

But often, it’s nothing so nice,

More like firing at close range.

Nevertheless, there are pleasant people,

Who write a word of wisdom, an epigram or joke.

If only one could avoid the sort of folk

Who close their tweets with hashtag WakeUpSheeple.