Bearded

Some news is good, some news is bad,

Despair’s advance deliberate.

You can’t escape this idiot state,

Content at dawn, by evening sad.

Too little done and all too late

Stacks peculation's billions up.

With sorrow overflows one's cup.

Tip not the rich man at the gate!

Let’s not complain it's down to fate,

For what's in store's been plain to see,

I think, since apes first crossed the sea—

Avoidable at any rate?

The public thing is out of tricks,

And those to come have rotten luck,

For they’ll inherit all our muck.

The cat knows well whose beard he licks.†

†Old English adage quoted in Robert Graves’ novel The Story of Marie Powell, Wife to Mr Milton (1943).

8-9 June 2025