Dancing in the Forum

Paul Klee, Cat and Bird (1928)

“This here's the rose, dance here!”

—G. W. F. Hegel, Fundamentals of the Philosophy of Right (misquoting Aesop's Fables)

That cat is not Macavity the Mystery Cat,

Who's called the Hidden Paw;*

And no, I've never seen the bird before.

In foro saltare—dancing in the Forum, Cicero calls depravity:†

The Forum's for gladiators mutual slaughter

And feeding losers to the lions—not the fucking polka!

Hic Rhodus, hic salta: Let this be Rhodes, jump here!

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty . . .

You find this puzzling? All will be explained—some other day.

Mystery is art's chief aim, not making pretty.

Those love-sick troubadours steered poetry wrong.

We must update its course—

Emend and tune viable its song.

If we can't, why, World'll sing a different ditty.

*T. S. Eliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939).

†Cicero, De officiis 3.75.

Saturday, June 6, 2025