Please Do Not Feed the Senators

Please Do Not Feed the Senators

There was the needle that stuck in the camel's eye.

While the swine were cast the cultured pearls.

Now goats and guppies visit the same veterinarian.

And the tit-willow gave birth to a dragon litter.

Some zoo: these buffalos in the bird-bath!

One thing and another being comparatively unequal,

the measurements of poison get a bit off balance.

Penitentiaries remain unimpressed by penitence.

The case of the unhealing wound will be continually reopened.

Which eye at the keyhole for which eye in the mote,

and whose tooth for whose toothache?

But things are looking up (without much hope).

Though more things are still left hanging.

Not high and dry, no, nor quite damp enough for a deluge:

so said the weather expert at closing tim e.

On the whole we regret the absence of thunderbolt.

- James Broughton, "Please Don't Feed the Senators," Evergreen 1:2 (New York: Grove Press, 1957) 108.