Precaution
I never dared be radical when young
For fear it would make me conservative when old.
The Span of Life
The old dog barks backward without getting up.
I can remember when he was a pup.
Pertinax
Let chaos storm!
Let cloud shapes swarm!
I wait for form.
Assertive
Let me be the one
To do what is done.
Tendencies Cancel
Will the blight kill the chestnut?
The farmers rather guess not.
It keeps smouldering at the roots
And sending up new shoots,
Till another parasite
Shall come to kill the blight.
Untried
On glossy wires artistically bent
He draws himself up to his full extent.
His natty wings with self-assurance perk.
His stinging quarters menacingly work.
Poor egotist, he has no way of knowing—
But he’s as good as anybody going.
Money
Never ask of money spent
Where the spender thinks it went.
Nobody was ever meant
To remember or invent
What he did with every cent.
Ring Around
We dance round in a ring and suppose.
But the secret sits in the middle and knows.
Not All There
I turned to speak to God
About the world’s despair;
But to make bad matters worse,
I found God wasn’t there.
God turned to speak to me
(Don’t anybody laugh!)
God found I wasn’t there—
At least not over half.
In Dive’s Dive
It is late at night and still I am losing,
But still I am patient and unaccusing.
As long as the Declaration guards
My right to be equal in number of cards,
It is nothing to me who runs the Dive.
Let’s have a look at another five.