Chain reaction

In Competition 2802 you were invited to supply a poem on the subject of your choice in which the final letter of each line becomes the first letter of the next line.
 
As usual with this type of technical challenge, strenuous accusations of sadism were directed judge-wards: many entrants echoed Brian Allgar’s sentiments below.
 
It was a reasonable turnout, though, and I hope that £30 apiece for the winners will offset the agony somewhat. Honourable mentions go to Bill Greenwell, Janet Kenny, Graham King and Tim Raikes.
 
W.J. Webster’s entry, in which form and content work well together, earns him the bonus fiver.

Why is it that I chase my tail,
Loopily as any dog,
Going round to no avail
Like a disconnected cog?
Goodness knows I’ve done my best
To change my ways and look ahead:
Driven, though, maybe obsessed —
Dammit, I turn back instead.
Does this failure to advance,
Ever circling round what’s gone,
Explain how this deluded dance
Excludes me from what’s going on?
Now’s a time I scarcely know
Whizzing past too fast to catch:
How can I hope to stop its flow
Whilst itching to get back to scratch?
W.J. Webster
 
Wool, cotton, silk — all three have polymeric
Chain molecules. Chain restaurants provide
Eating experiences bland, generic.
Convicts on chain gangs get to work outside.
 
Exemplifying gaudy rap-star bling,
Gold chains have likewise gleamed round royal
necks.
Some laws now smile on rights the wedding ring
Grants to a ball and chain of either sex.
 
Xenophobes dream of chain-link border fences
Surmounted by barbed wire, electrified.
Dealing in hoary get-rich-quick pretences,
Sharks take chain-letter suckers for a ride.
 
Embroiderers are deft with a chain stitch.
Hawaii is an archipelago
Or island chain. The human race is rich,
High-tech. Could chain reactions bring us low?
Chris O’Carroll
 
Yes, my ad in Gardeners’ Weekly, where I hint a
shade obliquely —
yet with longing — for a soulmate who’ll consent
to share my life
ends my celibate existence, I’ve abandoned all
resistance;
every day I dig for victory in my plot to find a wife.