04-07-2025, 05:03 AM
The Golden Point
O, say, traveler, can you see through the dust
what we labored to place, at millennium’s closing–
Khufu’s pyramid’s tip, solid gold, free of rust,
pharaoh’s final Big House for his ageless reposing?
Greeks and Romans have come, and some French amateurs,
not to mention wild Arabs and sightseeing Turks...
but our government, wise and stately as yours,
surely clings to its rule, and eternal its works!
Dear resident I must give you tragic news
with which you may wish I had not ever responded:
pharaoh’s government’s gone leaving only stark views
taking gold with which it long ago had absconded.
That is how kingdoms fare, and exceptions are rare–
men who claw to the top are congenital jerks.
Thus each government ever uncaring, unfair,
stoutly clings to its rule, and infernal its works!
[Form: Anacraeontic ode]
O, say, traveler, can you see through the dust
what we labored to place, at millennium’s closing–
Khufu’s pyramid’s tip, solid gold, free of rust,
pharaoh’s final Big House for his ageless reposing?
Greeks and Romans have come, and some French amateurs,
not to mention wild Arabs and sightseeing Turks...
but our government, wise and stately as yours,
surely clings to its rule, and eternal its works!
Dear resident I must give you tragic news
with which you may wish I had not ever responded:
pharaoh’s government’s gone leaving only stark views
taking gold with which it long ago had absconded.
That is how kingdoms fare, and exceptions are rare–
men who claw to the top are congenital jerks.
Thus each government ever uncaring, unfair,
stoutly clings to its rule, and infernal its works!
[Form: Anacraeontic ode]
Non-practicing atheist