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“Soliloquy in Circles” by Ogden Nash 🇺🇸 (19 Aug 1902 – 19 May 1971)
Being a father
Is quite a bother.
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You are as free as air
With time to spare,
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You’re a fiscal rocket
With change in your pocket,
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And then one morn
A child is born.
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Your life has been runcible,
Irresponsible,
​
Like an arrow or javelin
You’ve been constantly travelin’.
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But mostly, I daresay,
Without a chaise percée,
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To which by comparison
Nothing’s embarison.
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But all children matures,
Maybe even yours.
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You improve them mentally
And straighten them dentally,
​
They grow tall as a lancer
And ask questions you can’t answer,
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And supply you with data
About how everybody else wears lipstick sooner and stays up later,
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And if they are popular,
The phone they monopular.
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They scorn the dominion
Of their parent’s opinion,
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They’re no longer corralable
Once they find that you’re fallible
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But after you’ve raised them and educated them and gowned them,
They just take their little fingers and wrap you around them.
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Being a father Is quite a bother,
But I like it, rather.