Grooks (3 page)
Our choicest plans
have fallen through.
our airiest castles
tumbled over,
because of lines
we neatly drew
and later neatly
stumbled over.
I see
and I hear
and I speak no evil;
I carry
no malice
within my breast;
yet quite without
wishing
a man to the Devil
one may be
permitted
to hope for the best.
The lilacs are flowering, sweet and sublime,
with a perfume that goes to the head;
and lovers meander in prose and rhyme,
trying to say—
for the thousandth time—
what’s easier done than said.
Double doors are justified
because they’re comfortably wide.
Therefore you only half undo’em;
and therefore nothing can get through ‘em.
Corinna’s scanty evening dress
reveals her charms to an excess
which makes a fellow lust for less.
His party was the Brotherhood of Brothers,
and there were more of them than of the others.
That is. they constituted that minority
which formed the greater part of the majority.
Within the party, he was of the faction
that was supported by the greater fraction.
And in each group. within each group, he sought
the group that could command the most support.
The final group had finally elected
a triumvirate whom they all respected,
Now of these three, two had the final word,
because the two could overrule the third.
One of these two was relatively weak,
so one alone stood at the final peak.
He was: THE GREATER NUMBER of the pair
which formed the most part of the three that were
elected by the most of those whose boast
it was to represent the most of most
of most of most of the entire state—
or of the most of it at any rate.
He never gave himself a moment’s slumber
but sought the welfare of the greatest number,
And all the people, everywhere they went,
knew to their cost exactly what it meant
to be dictated to by the majority,
But that meant nothing,—they were the minority.
Experts have
their expert fun
ex cathedra
telling one
just how nothing
can be done.
Nature. it seems, is the popular name
for milliards and milliards and milliards
of particles playing their infinite game
of billiards and billiards and billiards.
God save us, now they’re murdering
another winding road,
and another lovely countryside
will take another load
of pantechnicon and car and motorbike.
They’re busy making bigger roads,
and better roads and more,
so that people can discover
even faster than before
that everything is everywhere alike.
We must expect posterity
to view with some asperity
the marvels and the wonders
we’re passing on to it;
but it should change its attitude
to one of heartfelt gratitude
when thinking of the blunders
we didn’t quite commit.
The only defence
that is more than pretence
is to act on the fact
that there is no defence.
