Haruspex

The liver, old Babylonians believed,

Is the seat of love and passion;

Baʿal's acolytes were not deceived

When in their atrabilious fashion,

They groped in a mantic victim's giblets,

Among the roiling innards tracked its role,

Bypassing noisy heart and calculating brain,

And from the deep end of the belly's pool

Called forth the seepage of our sappy strain:

The medulla oblongata and the vagus nerve

May do their bit, and for transmission serve,

But it's from the viscera we get our verve—

The flighty feeling and the je ne sais quoi

That hurries heroes to a last hurrah,

When human hopes are largely best regards

And fond, a schmear of pâté de foie gras.

Thursday, July 30, 2026