PoetrySociety, Power & Modern Life

The New Transactional World of Quid Pro Quo

By 26 February 2025August 6th, 2026No Comments1 min read
A picture of a blonde male with patchwork face of dollars - Skendong-Poetry

Transactional

A short political poem reflecting on quid pro quo, power and exchange, questioning whether anything in modern life is ever truly free.


The media call him Transactional.
Where I’m from they call it quid pro quo.
In Latin it means something for something.
Like I give my man a tenner,
He hands me a bud of green sticky blow.

You rarely get something for nothing.
Not much in this life is free.
If it is then you are the product he said.
Even an apple is enslaved
As it falls from the tree.

Street art portrait of Donald Trump photographed by Skendong, illustrating the poem's theme of transactional politics.

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More poems from the archive:

A Fourth Reich Now

The Barbarians Have Arrived

Epic Quantico Speech

Related source:

Trump’s transactional governance

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